Changing History
by Maiden of the BH
Summary: This story takes place years after JKR's 7th book. It is about a new group of students attending Hogwarts.
1. Counting Wands

I am writing this story about my friends, as if we were to attend Hogwarts. So that I don't have to maintiain a running list in one chapter of all the characters, I'll simply list the characters before the chapter in which they are first introduced. If you wish to be featured in this story, please review and tell me your character's name, your preferred Hogwart's house, whether or not your parents were a witch and wizard and if so, their houses, and a short physical description and some personality traits of your character. Also, tell me your character's best and worst subjects and the name, house, and age of any siblings (no more twins, please). I'll consider putting you in my story. My character's name is Alice Bint. She is NOT modeled after me.

Characters introduced in this chapter: Real life friend: Anna - Leslie Loligo; Internet friends:Mat - Josef Wynnsgard, mosaloca - Ava Mizar Borboa

Counting Wands

Alice tried to contain her excitement, but she felt as if it were bubbling out of her ears, beyond her control. She took a handful of Floo powder from her mother, losing nearly half of it on the floor as she neared their fireplace.

"Alice!" scolded her mother. "What do you think you're doing? You don't need that much!"

Alice quickly put her hand over the pot where her family kept their Floo powder and rubbed her fingers back and forth, letting most of the powder in her hand drop back into the pot. As she stepped into their dead fireplace, she noticed that her mother had already dealt with the Floo powder that had been spilt across the floor.

Alice raised her hand and then let it fall, dropping the Floo powder around her feet. "Diagon Alley!" she yelled, the words clear and precise despite her excitement. Green flames engulfed her, shooting well above her head. The next thing she knew, she was spinning very quickly. It used to make her sick to her stomach to travel with Floo powder when she was younger, but she had gotten used to it. She kept her eyes open, though squinted slightly, and her elbows remained tucked into her sides. Fireplaces flashed by at a high speed, but she wasn't concerned with any of them. Then, very suddenly, she slowed to a halt. She almost tumbled out of the familiar fireplace, but regained her footing and her dignity. Well, her dignity couldn't be completely regained yet. Soot was sprinkled in her hair and on her clothing. She took out a handkerchief and began to run it over her face, getting the worst of the ash off. She stood to the side of the fireplace, waiting for her mother.

Not long after, the woman came walking out of the fireplace, completely unphased by this peculiar form of transport. "Scorfigy!" she said, pointing her wand at herself and then at her eleven year old daughter. "Come Alice, there's only a few more things you need."

Alice followed her mother into the sunshine of Diagon Alley. She'd been here countless times before, but never at this time of year. Her parents always said that Diagon Alley was too busy and crowded in August, when Hogwarts students were buying their school supplies. But now Alice was a Hogwarts student too. Still, she hadn't been given the opportunity to get all of her supplies. Her mother had gone to buy the bulk of her school supplies a week ago when her acceptance letter arrived from Hogwarts. All Alice was here for today were the things her mother couldn't get without her: new robes and a wand.

Alice stayed close to her mother as they made their way across the crowded street. She walked into Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and was directed to the side of the store where she stood upon a stool, letting a young witch pin up the long robe that had been draped over her head. There were two other people getting fitted for robes and they looked about Alice's age.

"Hello," said the girl as Alice was instructed to hold her arms out to the side. "Are you going to be a first year too?"

"Yes," said Alice, taking a liking to this girl right away. "My name's Alice. What's yours?'

"Leslie," said the girl. She had curly, dirty blond hair and piercing blue eyes. She was about half a head taller than Alice, and Alice didn't really think of herself as short. "His name's Josef," said Leslie, moving her head toward the boy's direction.

"Please don't move," said the witch pinning up Leslie's robes.

Leslie sighed in obvious annoyance.

"Hello," said Josef. The direction Alice was facing, she could barely see him out of the corner of her eye. Slowly, she turned her head so that she could get a good look at him. He, too, was taller than Alice, but she couldn't tell if he were taller than Leslie or not. He was thin and the wizard pinning his robes was working at making the robes closer fitting. Alice glanced down at herself. She wasn't exactly fat, but she knew that her robes would not be taken in in the sides, just brought up so that they weren't too long. "Isn't this exciting?" asked Josef.

"Yeah," said Alice, looking back up at him. He had brown hair and eyes and wore glasses. The best thing about his face though, was the big smile he wore. Alice felt instantly that they would be good friends. "It is exciting," she said. "Of course, I always knew this day would come. My parents are both a witch and wizard and my father's family have been wizards for as far back as we can remember."

"Really?" asked Leslie, squinting her eyes at Alice. "What about your mother's family?"

Alice was taken aback by this and by the look in Leslie's eyes.

"You're done," said the witch who had been pinning up Leslie's robes and was now helping her out of them.

"Leslie, we need to get your books now," said a man near the door. A woman who looked like a much older Leslie stood beside him. Another girl who had been sitting on the floor jumped up and wiped off her rear end with the back of a hand. She must be Leslie's older sister, though she looked much more bored than the other three members of her family.

"I guess I'll be seeing you at Hogwarts," said Leslie to Josef and Alice. "Maybe we'll be in the same house." She flashed a quick, but lovely, smile and followed her parents and older sister out of the shop.

"And I wonder what house _she'll_ be in," muttered the woman who was now holding her robe, full of pins. She shook her head and took the robe to the back where it would be used to make new robes for Leslie to pick up later.

"That was … odd," said Josef. "I wonder why she asked that about your mother. We weren't talking about such things before you came."

Alice looked over at him to see that he truly looked concerned. "I don't know," said Alice. "My mother's parents are muggles, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

Josef shook his head. "Nothing wrong with that at all. My parents are muggles. My grandmother was a witch though."

Alice would have loved to speak longer with him, but now he was done too and he left with his parents, waving at Alice warmly before exiting the shop. More people walked into the shop as he left. A father and his daughter. The girl had wavy brown hair and friendly brown eyes. "Hi!" she said as she jumped onto the stool Leslie had used.

"Hello," said Alice. "My name's Alice. Are you going to be a first year? I am."

"Me too," said the girl. "My name's Ava." Ava was about to move to shake Alice's hand, but was quickly put into line by an old wizard who was trying to get a robe over her head. Ava giggled at the whole thing and stayed still. Just then, Alice's robe was finished and she said bye to Ava, promising to see her at Hogwarts.

"Did you make some new friends?" asked her mother as Alice stepped out behind her into the busy street.

"I think so," said Alice. "Where to next?" Alice knew where they were going next, but she wanted her hear her mother say it anyway.

"Now you get a wand Alice."

The excitement that had filled her earlier came back. Of course, Alice had been looking through her books and had tried on her dragon hide gloves and had set out her crystal phials and brass scales to admire over the last week, but what she really wanted was a wand. It wasn't soon enough when they reached an old shop with a sign over it which read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.

Stepping inside the small, dusty shop, she immediately felt disappointed. Had she expected fireworks and fanfare? She had spoken of owning her own wand so much over the last year that it felt unreal to be standing in this shop, but it didn't feel as, _as what?_ thought Alice. As … _magical_ as she had expected.

"Ah, Miss Alice Bint!" said an old man with huge eyes, coming forward. "And Mrs. Elizabeth Bint! Holly and unicorn hair. Eigth inches. Am I right?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Bint. She didn't seem surprised that this man's memory was so good. It took a while for Alice to realize that her mouth was open. She quickly shut it. _How does he know who I am?_ she wondered. _Does he have a list of all the first year students?_

"And your husband," continued Mr. Ollivander, still talking with Alice's mother. "Nine and three-quarter inches. Ebony. Phoenix tail feather."

"Yes, I believe that's correct," said Mrs. Bint.

"Now we just need to find a wand for you, Alice," said Mr. Ollivander, turning his unblinking eyes on her. She shifted slightly under his gaze but overcame her shyness when he turned away from her and selected a wand. "No two Ollivander wands are the same," he said, holding out the wand for Alice to grab. "Phoenix tail feather and yew. Seven and a quarter inches."

Alice had barely touched the wand before Mr. Ollivander put it back in its box and selected a new one.

"That's one," said Alice's mother, her eyes twinkling in the dark shop. Alice smiled. They had spoken about this before coming to Diagon Alley.

"Buying a wand is an experience you'll never forget," her mother had said. "It's unique and different and special for each young witch and wizard. I can still remember when I got my wand. My mother and father were with me. They didn't know what it was going to be like and were all jumpy at the flashiness of Diagon Alley. I still remember that it took me seven tries before I found the wand for me. You should count how many tries it takes you. Your father can't even remember; he just knows that it didn't take too long."

It was good for Alice to have her mother with her. "Dragon heartstring. Oak. Nine and a half inches," said Mr. Ollivander, holding out a new wand. Alice took it in her hand. She wasn't holding it for long though.

"Two," said Alice's mother.

Mr. Ollivander continued presenting more wands for Alice. Most of them he snatched away after she laid one finger on them. After wand sixteen, he went into the back of his shop.

"You don't need to keep counting aloud mother," said Alice. "I can keep count in my head."

Mr. Ollivander came out of the back of his shop, holding a large bundle of different wands. He continued to tell her the properties of each wand before holding it out to her, but after wand thirty-one, Alice stopped paying attention to what he was saying. Really, she didn't know how he kept track of it all. There weren't any labels on the boxes that she could understand.

It wasn't until wand fifty-eight that Alice started to worry. Shouldn't she have found her wand by now? Mr. Ollivander had a lot of practice fitting the wand to the wizard. Didn't he know which wand he should place into her hand? As she reached out to touch the next wand, it wasn't surprising to see Mr. Ollivander slip it back into its box.

_Am I a squib?_ Alice thought, slightly panicked. _I wouldn't have been accepted into Hogwarts if I weren't a witch!_ She put her hand around wand number sixty. It wasn't the wand for her either.

"Don't worry," said Mr. Ollivander. "I've had to make harder matches than this before. There's a wand here for you somewhere. We'll find it."

He disappeared into the back of his shop again, only to remerge a few minutes later, carrying so many wands he could barely see above them. With a swiftness that startled Alice, he opened many boxed, setting them all in a row. One after another, he held wands out to Alice, pronouncing the properties of each in a clear voice. Gingerly, she continued to wrap her fingers around wand after wand. Nothing ever happened as she touched each wand, and each one was put back in its respective box. Somewhere around wand ninety-three, Alice's mother placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear that the robes should be ready now and she was just going to go pick them up. Alice nodded and reached out for a seven and a half inch wand made out of a nearly white wood.

Now Alice was all alone in the shop with Mr. Ollivander. While she was reaching for new wands, she barely perceived her mother's absence, but each time Mr. Ollivander tottered back into the depths of his shop under a load of wands, Alice would look around the shop, feeling very alone. Wand one hundred came and went, and it seemed like no time at all before the number "one hundred and fifty" rang in Alice's head. She wanted to cry, but felt unable to.

Despite the sickening knot which was forming and quickly taking over her stomach, Alice continued to count. As she lightly held wand one hundred and seventy-one, she couldn't help but think, _Is this ever going to end?_ Even worse than the knot in her stomach or the fact that her mother was taking forever to pick up a few robes was that Mr. Ollivander looked like he were getting excited. He had become so jumpy that it seemed that gravity was having a hard time keeping his feet on the ground. While Alice wasn't sure the curve of his mouth could be called a smile, it was obviously being caused by some weird streak of happiness running through him. What was he so happy about? Why hadn't he found her wand yet?

Mr. Ollivander placed a very long and slender wand into Alice's hand, the last wand out of this group. _One hundred and seventy-nine_, thought Alice. She offered the wand back to Mr. Ollivander immediately after she had taken hold of it. He placed it back in its box and began to stack up all of the boxes to take them away again. He turned and left her, nearly skipping from the room. Alice sighed deeply. She felt very disturbed by his behavior.

Alice couldn't hear Mr. Ollivander moving around in the back. It took her only a second to realize that every other time he had left her, she'd been able to hear him moving boxes. Now she could hear nothing. She strained her ears, but Mr. Ollivander had become as quiet as a ghost. He was also taking much longer than he had before. Just when she was thinking that she should check to make sure he was alright, she heard his footsteps. He was coming back.

Alice stared at the boxes he held. Her mouth was hanging open again. She knew that she was being rude, but it took her a while to figure out how to close it. These boxes were huge!

"I haven't sold one of these wands in eight years," pronounced Mr. Ollivander. "Most witches and wizards are fine with average sized wands made out of the normal wand woods with a core of either dragon heartstring, unicorn hair, or a phoenix tail feather. It seems to me, Miss Bint, that you aren't most witches and wizards." He opened up the first box. "Redwood. Centaur hair. Fourteen inches."

Alice's hand shook as she took up the large wand. She nearly dropped it, surprised at how different the extra inches made the wand feel. She was so in awe of the wand that she barely noticed when it was taken away from her and replaced with an even larger wand. A second later, she realized that she had forgotten to count. _One hundred and eighty-one_, she thought, giving the second over-sized wand back to Mr. Ollivander.

Alice was no longer bored by the description of each wand placed in her waiting hand nor was she frantically trying to banish the thought, _Am I a squib?_ She'd never heard of such exotic wands before in her life. Most of all, the various wand cores excited her. At one moment, she held a wand with a griffin feather, then merpeople hair, basilisk scales, fairy wings, and even a wand with sphinx fur. Each wand was over a foot in length, though after wand two hundred and thirty, it began to feel natural for the wands to be so long.

It came as a shock to her when Mr. Ollivander quickly changed tactics. He returned from the back of his shop (way, _way_, in the back, if the lack of noise indicated anything), carrying more boxes than he had ever brought out to Alice at one time. These weren't the over-sized wands that he had been showing to Alice lately though. These wands were tiny!

"Four inches. Mesquite. Mooncalf fur." said Mr. Ollivander. Alice took hold of the wand. It seemed to disappear in her hand, the tip of it barely sticking out in the open. It felt so brittle that she was afraid she'd break it. Mr. Ollivander held out his hand for her to return it instead of just snatching it back as he had many of the other wands.

The door of the shop opened. Alice turned around to see who it was. Her mother beamed at her, holding more bags than a few robes would need. "Still trying out wands?" she asked. She didn't seem surprised. Alice nodded, trying to see what was in the bags her mother held.

"Doxy wings and palm. Four and a half inches," said Mr. Ollivander, regaining Alice's attention.

"Four and a half inches!" asked her mother, hurrying to her side. "Surely that's too small!"

Alice grabbed the wand at the bottom with three fingers. It seemed like a better way of holding such a small wand than wrapping her whole hand around it. _Two hundred and thirty-five_, thought Alice, ignoring her mother's question. She'd never heard of a wand so small either, but if this wand choose her, she'd gladly take it. Mr. Ollivander took the wand back.

Alice began to scan the multitude of tiny boxes before her, wondering what number she'd be on when Mr. Ollivander made another trip back into his shop. She didn't hear the properties of the next wand as it was placed in her hand. The wand pulsed under her fingers. Alice yelped and dropped it, but Mr. Ollivander's hand was already reaching out and he caught it in midair. "This is it!" he said. "Five inches. Diricawl feather. Poplar." Alice felt like her heart had stopped._ This is it?_ she thought, unbelieving. She'd never even heard of a diricawl before, but right now she didn't care. Her wand had finally found her!

"Nine Galleons and eight Sickles," said Mr. Ollivander, but Alice didn't even hear him. She didn't see the ruffled way her mother paid either, due to the high price. She couldn't take her eyes off her wand. _Her wand! Two hundred and thirty-six! Her wand!_


	2. Leaving Home

Characters introduced in this chapter: Real life friends: Victoria - Eve Orwell, Ryan - Joseph Boeker; Internet friend: Destati - Blaine Newcomb

Leaving Home

Alice sat in an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express. She was hanging out the window of her compartment, saying good-bye to her parents and her little brother, Richard. He kept complaining that he wanted to take a ride on the train.

"Just wait two more years, son," said Alice's father. Mr. Bint looked up at his daughter. "You make sure and get that window closed when the train starts moving," he cautioned. "It wouldn't do for you to start the year off with a cold."

"I'm not that dumb, daddy," said Alice, rolling her eyes.

"Will you write us tonight?" asked her mother. "We'll want to know what house you're in."

"You say that like you're not sure," said Alice. "I'm sure I'll be in the same house as everyone else in the family." Mrs. Bint raised her eyebrows. "Oh, alright. I'll write you tonight to let you know that I'm in Ravenclaw," said Alice shortly.

"Good," said Mrs. Bint.

"Alice!" someone yelled. Alice leaned out of the window even further, turning her head in the direction of where she had come onto platform nine and three quarters. A brown haired girl stood there, waving hugely at her.

"Ava!" said Alice, surprising herself that she could even remember this girl's name. The girl was walking beside her father who was pushing a loaded down trolley. For a moment, Alice was sad. Did Ava only have her father? No mother or siblings?

"You know her?" snapped Alice's father.

"Yeah. I met her when I was getting my robes."

Mr. Bint turned to his wife, his eyes asking for a confirmation. "I seem to remember the girl," said Mrs. Bint. "Is there something important about her?"

"Her father…" started Mr. Bint, but he didn't finish whatever he'd been about to say. He looked up at his daughter and said, "Just be careful in the friends you choose dear."

Richard began jumping up and down, trying to see over all of the people around him to get a glimpse of the people his parents and older sister were talking about. "Who's Ava?" he asked in midjump.

"Never you mind," said his father, placing his hands on his son's shoulders to stop him from jumping again.

Alice's compartment door slid open. She spun around to see who it was. A boy who looked to be a few years older than her stood there blushing. "Sorry. I thought this compartment was empty." Before Alice could tell him that she wouldn't mind if he sat with her, he was gone.

"Who was that?" asked Mrs. Bint.

"I don't know," said Alice. "But he's gone now."

"Can I sit with you?" called out Ava. She had just helped her father to load her luggage onto the train.

"Sure," said Alice. "I'm in the third compartment I think."

"Ok! I'm coming!"

Alice looked down at her parents, giving them an all-too-familiar stare.

"Alright, we'll leave you alone now," said her mother. "But you'll miss us later. This is your first time being away from home." She looked near tears, watching her oldest child riding off to Hogwarts.

"Don't mind your mother," said Mr. Bint. "Have a wonderful year Alice! I guess we won't be seeing you till Christmas."

"Yeah," said Alice absentmindedly. She was already closing the window.

Not a moment too soon. Ava slid the door open and tumbled into the compartment. And she wasn't alone. A tall boy stood at her side, wearing a smug expression.

"Hi Alice!" said Ava, plopping down on the seat after shoving her bag with her robes into the carrier over their heads.

But Alice was still looking at the boy.

"This is my friend, Blaine," said Ava, noticing where Alice's attention was. "We've known each other all of our lives. Our parents are close friends."

Blaine extended his hand. Alice shook it. "Nice to meet you," he said. "Ava says that she really doesn't know you but that she does know you. She wouldn't explain what that meant. Maybe you could enlighten me."

"Well, um, we don't know each other," said Alice. "I mean, we met when we were buying our robes, but I left right after she got there. We didn't even get to talk."

"But we should know each other!" said Ava. "We're going to be friends!" She said this with such conviction that Alice found herself staring at the girl. Her hair was extra frizzy today and her cheeks were flushed from helping her father with her trunk and then running to the compartment, probably dragging Blaine along.

"She gets like this sometimes," muttered Blaine, only loud enough for Alice to hear. "Just go with it." He sat down next to Ava, by the window. He stared outside, watching the people milling about on the platform.

"You said your parents knew each other," said Alice, sitting down across from Blaine. "Did they go to school together at Hogwarts?"

"Yes!" said Ava. "My dad was in the same year as Blaine's mother. His father was in the year before them. All in the same house."

"Which house?" asked Alice.

"Slytherin," said Blaine, though he hadn't taken his eyes away from the window.

Alice's next words caught in her throat. _That's what daddy meant. Ava's father was a Slytherin. And already I've been introduced to another Slytherin offspring!_

"She'll never be a Slytherin," said Blaine, indicating Ava. "Too cheerful for her own good."

"So what?" said Ava.

Alice swallowed before saying anything. "There's nothing wrong with being cheerful," she said.

"See!" said Ava. "And you say that as if you'll be in Slytherin. Is that where you want to be?"

Blaine shrugged.

The compartment door opened. Three heads turned to see who it was. A very pretty girl stood there. She had shoulder length red hair with highlights. "I'm sorry," she said. "All the compartments are filling up so fast. Could I sit in here?"

"Sure!" said Ava. "The more the merrier!"

"Unless one more would mean someone sitting on the floor," said Blaine sarcastically.

The new girl sat down next to Alice. She had clear green eyes and even her muggle blouse was a lovely shade of green, bringing out the color in her eyes even more. "My name's Eve Orwell," she said. She set her purse down beside her. A book (it didn't look like any of their school text books) poked out.

"Hi!" said Ava. "My name's Ava Mizar Borboa!"

"I'm Alice Bint," said Alice.

Blain introduced himself as Blaine Newcomb.

Friendly introductions done, the group became silent. A few moments later, the whistle of the train blew. Blaine checked his watch. "Eleven o'clock," he said. "And now it's started. We're really leaving home now."

"But we're going to a much better home," said Ava brightly.

"Where we'll learn about magic," put in Eve. Alice looked over at Eve. The girl looked as if she had just started a wondrous and unexpected adventure. She hadn't said the word "magic" in the way that someone accustomed to saying it would.

Alice wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing or not, asking such a question in the presence of Ava and Blaine, but she asked anyway. "Are your parents wizards Eve?"

"No. I didn't know such things existed. I've always been a bit different. Things would happen and I could never explain how, but now they're telling me that I have magic!"

"So your parents are muggles?" asked Ava, looking excited at the thought. "I've never met a muggle before."

Eve made a face at the word "muggle." "I don't think I'll ever get used to that word," she said. "It doesn't sound very nice."

"It's not meant to be an insult," said Alice. "Well, I guess you could make nearly anything into an insult, but it's perfectly alright that your parents are muggles. I've known a few muggles and they seemed alright to me." Alice looked at Blaine out of the corner of her eye. He was no longer looking out the window but at Alice and Eve. Alice noticed that he had blue-green eyes. His eyes looked so like her brothers that Alice was nearly caught off guard. "We were just talking about houses before you came," said Alice.

"Oh," said Eve. "I read about the Hogwarts houses in one of our books! I think I want to be in Ravenclaw. I'd fit in there."

"You never said what house your parents were in, Alice," said Ava.

"They were in Ravenclaw. That's probably where I'll be," said Alice. "I mean, I've been home schooled by my parents my whole life and they both say I'm really smart."

"I don't really know where I'll be," said Ava. "We'll just have to wait and see tonight."

"It'll be decided tonight?" asked Eve. She looked a little nervous at the thought. "Will they give us some sort of test?"

"I've heard it's some old hat that decides," spoke up Blaine.

"A hat?" asked Eve.

"Yeah, a magical hat," said Ava. "It's called the Sorting Hat. It tells us what house we belong to. My dad wants me to be in Slytherin like him, but it's not his place to decide."

A woman pushing a trolley stopped by their compartment, asking is they wished to buy anything, and the four of them left off further conversation about Hogwarts houses or their parents. Instead, they all bought a different treat and split everything four ways, introducing Eve to the wonders of wizard candy. Even Ava and Blaine seemed to enjoy showing her the chocolate frogs and telling her about their own collection of wizard cards at home.

Then Blaine took out his set of Gobstones and they all played together. Each time someone lost, the person who had lost had to eat a Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean which the other people in the compartment chose. Eve lost more than anyone else, having never played the game before, but after a few hours, she started to get the hang of it. Finally, the group of girls got Blaine to lose (it had been obvious after game one that he was the best at it) and looked through a package of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans greedily.

"This isn't fair!" he said, watching them sifting through the beans, their eyes gleaming maliciously.

"Of course it's fair," said Eve. "I've eaten six of these stinking things already. And only one of them was a normal flavor: coconut."

"Yeah, we've all had to eat these things. It's your turn Blaine!" said Ava. "What do you think of this brown one?" she asked Alice.

Alice shook her head. "Just our luck and it'd be chocolate."

"I don't want to play anymore," said Blaine. "I hate Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. How do they even make money? Everyone knows they have horrible flavors."

"But we're not playing anymore," said Ava. "We're done playing and you're getting your just reward."

Eve picked out a gray bean, speckled with small brown spots. "What about this one? What flavor do you think it is?"

Ava leaned over to look. "I don't think I've ever seen a bean that color before. There's only one way to tell what flavor it is." She turned to look at Blaine who groaned.

"You've got to be kidding me!" he said. The three girls grinned and Eve passed Blaine the bean. He took it, but didn't put it in his mouth. "Do I have to?" he pleaded.

"Yes," said Ava.

His face already a grimace, Blaine put the bean in his mouth. He chewed slightly and his face began to brighten.

"Oh no!" said Alice. "What flavor was it?"

Blaine swallowed. "It tasted like chicken dipped in gravy!" he said.

"Great!" said Ava. "We have rotten luck."

A knock sounded on the door before sliding open. A much older student stood in the doorway. "Are you first years?" he asked.

Alice and Ava nodded up at him from where they were sitting on the floor (it had been easier to play Gobstones down here).

"Well, we're getting close to Hogwarts. You should start getting into your robes. Don't worry about your luggage. It will be taken care of." He let their door slide back in place and moved onto the next compartment.

"Who do you suppose he was?" asked Eve, stretching as she stood up.

"I don't know. Maybe Head Boy," said Blaine, also getting up. He held his hand down to help Ava up as well.

Before long, they were all trying to pull robes over their muggle clothes in the small compartment. Eve shook her robes out, causing them to flick Ava. Alice started to get into her robe, punching her arm into the sleeve. Her punch ended in Blaine's arm. ("Ow," he said.) Blaine kept bumping into Ava and Ava into Blaine as the two of them shifted their robes into place.

"This room isn't nearly big enough for this," said Alice, stifling a laugh.

Eve wasn't even trying to hold in her laughs and ended up falling onto her seat, laughing loudly at the picture that the four of them made. Finally, they were all wearing their robes and had sat back down. Each of them sat up straight, their eyes directed toward the window. It had gotten dark without any of them noticing.

"What do you think Hogwarts will be like?" asked Eve in a whisper. Even though she spoke so quietly, everyone heard.

"It'll be loads of fun," said Ava. "We'll get to finally learn magic and we'll belong to a house of our own instead of just always being known by our parent's house and we'll get to watch Quidditch and go on adventures around Hogwarts."

Alice had never thought of Hogwarts in quite this way before, but Ava sure did make it sound fun! Butterflies filled Alice's stomach as she thought of walking into that building. All of a sudden, it hit her. She was a Hogwarts student now!

The train began to slow. You could have cut the tension in the room with a knife. As the train finally lurched to a stop, the four first years inside stood up. Alice and Blaine's head smashed together as they both got up too fast.

"Ow!" said Alice, putting her hand over her forehead. Blaine was holding his forehead too.

"Are you two alright?" asked Ava. Once she saw that they both seemed to be alright, her face brightened. "It made a nick cracking sound when your heads hit!"

"Thanks," said Blaine sarcastically. "That's just what I wanted to know."

The four of them shuffled into the crowded hallway and slowly made their way to a door leading off the train into Hogsmeade Station. It took a while as they tried to shove their way through. Most of the other students were much bigger and older than the first years. Alice and Ava got separated from Blaine and Eve in the crowd. They were beginning to follow the main group of students out of the Station when they heard a voice yell above the clamor, "Firs' years! Firs' years come this way!" Alice took Ava by the arm and pulled her towards the voice. As the crowd began to thin, Alice and Ava found themselves among other people around their height and age, moving toward the voice which continued to beckon first years.

Nothing could have prepared Alice for what she saw next. The man calling for first years towered high above her, taller, surely, than was humanly possible. She could barely see his face, covered as it was with a wild mane of hair and beard, though she could make out his black eyes, shining a bit as he looked down at the little people surrounding him.

Seeing that everyone seemed to be assembled, the man turned and waved everyone behind him. "Firs' years follow me!" he called. They all followed him. Walking around a bend, they were met with an absolutely glorious sight. A few first years gasped. "That be Hogwarts," said the huge man leading them. "Your home for the next seven years!" Alice's eyes went wide at the sight of the place. A large lake stretched before them, the water still, not a ripple upon it. And across the lake, atop a mountain, stood Hogwarts. _It's not a school_, thought Alice. _It's a castle!_ And sure enough, it looked like a castle. The whole building was topped with an assortment of towers and turrets. A few flags could barely be seen, flapping in the wind, causing the stars behind them to flicker in and out of sight. Many windows blazed with light, creating a perfect picture as if out of a fairy tale. Alice had seen pictures of Hogwarts before, but always in daylight. It looked entirely different at night!

"Now, we're gonna take a ride in these boats up ta Hogwarts," said the man. "No more'n four in one boat," he warned. He quickly began to shepherd the first years into boats, leaving one boat for himself alone. Alice and Ava stuck together, but they couldn't find Blaine or Eve in the crowd. Then they finally spotted the two, sitting in a boat with another girl and boy. Alice and Ava sat down in a boat, resigning themselves to the fact that they wouldn't get to ride with Blaine or Eve. Two boys got in with them.

"Alice?" asked one of them. Alice looked across at the boy.

"Josef!" she said, recognizing him easily.

"FORWARD!" they heard the man yell. All of the boats shuddered slightly before moving away from the bank, towards Hogwarts.

"You know him?" asked Ava.

"Yeah, I met him too when I was getting fitted for robes," said Alice. "Who's your friend Josef?"

Josef's friend shifted under the gaze of the three other people in the boat. It was hard to tell in the dark, but he looked as if he could have been Josef's brother, being just as thin and tall, but his face looked different enough, so they probably weren't related.

"His name's Joseph!" said Josef. "Can you imagine that? Josef and Joseph! Spelled differently, but sounds the same."

Everyone in the boat said hi before Hogwarts caught their gaze again. The rest of the boat ride continued in silence as they looked with awe upon their new home.


	3. Singing Hat

A/N: My apologies for the formating of the Sorting Hat song. I can't get it to not be double spaced because of the way works.

Characters introduced in this chapter: Real life friend: Brian - Dominic Dwaitwist; Internet friends: Nikora - Elizabeth Turpin, Daphne Greengrass - Daphne McFarlane, pedrobobo - Steven Stouffer, Hermionebrain - Alanna Ponte, Gizymotor - Keri Grey

Singing Hat

Alice stood alongside Ava, crammed into a small room with all the other first years. A black haired witch who had introduced herself as Professor McGonagall had just left the room upon telling the first years that the "Sorting Ceremony" would begin shortly. Now that she had left, the room was a buzz of conversation. Many of the young witches and wizards were talking nervously about what house they might be placed in and quite a few of them were asking if anyone knew what the Sorting Ceremony was or how it worked. In the tight room, Alice couldn't figure out where Eve and Blaine were, but Josef and Joseph were both standing beside her and Ava.

"I wonder what house I'll be in," said Joseph. "My sister's in Hufflepuff and my brother's in Slytherin."

"Oh, so you have older siblings here?" asked Alice. "I'm the oldest. I have a brother two years younger than me."

Joseph nodded. "I'm the youngest," he said.

"Only child," said Ava, indicating herself.

Just then, all talk ceased as the door through which they had entered this room opened, Professor McGonagall standing in the doorway. She was wearing emerald green robes and a pointed hat. "First years, this way," she said, motioning them forward. "Form a line please!" The first years hurried out of the room, pushing into line as they went. Professor McGonagall led them across the hall and then through the double doors into the Great Hall. Four long tables with the older students sitting at them took up much of the space in the room. Golden goblets and plates lay on the tables, currently empty and clean. Candles hung in midair above all of the tables, and looking up at the ceiling, Alice saw that there wasn't one. The night sky, awash with stars, could be clearly seen above their heads.

"Amazing," she heard Josef mutter behind her.

They were led between the two center tables, heading toward the front of the hall. At that end, a fifth table stood before the far wall. Many adults, apparently teachers, were sitting at the table, facing the students.

Professor McGonagall had reached the front of the hall and turned to face the students, instructing the first years to continue walking forward until they formed a line before the staff table. Alice followed the line until it stopped moving and then turned to look at the hall. All of the older students were looking at the first years. Alice felt painfully exposed and wished that she could hide behind one of the people beside her, but she would really only bring more attention to herself if she did something like that.

Professor McGonagall walked to the side of the hall and then returned to the center, carrying two objects. One of them was a stool with four legs which she placed where everyone could see it and the other was an old hat which she placed atop the stool. Then she stood back from the stool. All eyes in the hall were riveted on the old hat. For a moment, Alice didn't think anything was gong to happen, but then an old tear near the brim of the hat opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing.

"_There was a time when I feared_

_To sort you into houses four,_

_But now I see the benefits_

_Of sorting you once more;_

_For I have talents wizards don't,_

_To see into your head and find,_

_Things about your personality_

_Your heart and your mind;_

_I sort you so that all might know_

_Where your greatest talents lie,_

_And just hope in all houses you may see_

_That there you find an ally;_

_If you need someone of stout heart,_

_Look no farther than Gryffindor,_

_For they have heart and bravery_

_To offer you galore;_

_If you're looking for a clear head,_

_Turn then to learned Ravenclaw,_

_This wise and clever bunch_

_On vast knowledge can draw;_

_If you want loyalty on your side,_

_Search then for Hufflepuff,_

_They will never turn from a friend_

_And will keep going when things get tough;_

_If your venture requires shrewdness,_

_Add to your group Slytherin,_

_They might think of things you would not_

_And can always find a way to win;_

_So now, with strengths in the open_

_Think not of how you each are weak,_

_No witch or wizard is perfect_

_But each of you is unique;_

_While it may be true that_

_Birds of a feather flock together,_

_And those friends who are like you_

_Will stick by in harsh weather;_

_Know too that_

_Opposites attract,_

_And it behooves you with other houses_

_To make a friendship pact;_

_Now that I have spoken my piece_

_I must do what I was made to,_

_Let me into your mind_

_So that I might sort you;_

_Just slip me onto your head_

_And I will see where you fit in,_

_I haven't made a mistake yet,_

_So let this sorting begin!"_

Thunderous applause greeted the end of the song and Professor McGonagall turned to the first years, a list in her hand. "I will call out your names in alphabetical order," she said. "When I call your name, please come sit on the stool. I will place the Sorting Hat onto your head and you will be sorted. When it calls out your house, please go sit at the appropriate table."

She consulted her list. "Bint, Alice," she said.

Alice felt her stomach sink. _I'm first! There aren't any A's? Our class starts with the name Bint?_ Timidly, Alice stepped out of line and walked up to the stool. Professor McGonagall picked up the hat and Alice sat down. The next thing she knew, the hat was on her head. It was a very big hat and slipped down over her ears and the brim rested on the tip of her nose. She heard a few chuckles behind her, but none of the older students were laughing at her. She truly hoped that the hat looked this big on everyone.

"Lets see here," said a voice in Alice's ear. She recognized the voice as that of the hat, except it wasn't singing anymore. "Very curious," it said. "Not a bad mind, great in fact, though not very much natural talent."

_What?_ thought Alice. _Please don't say I'm a squib! I have a wand!_

"No, not a squib. Just a different type of witch. Now where should I put you?"

_Ravenclaw!_

"Why do you say Ravenclaw? What makes you think you belong there?"

_Because I'm smart! I do really good in most subjects and I'm good at memorizing facts and stuff. Doesn't that mean I'm brainy?_

"Ah, but did those facts come from your mind? No, for you to not be left behind; for you to rise up to the top, you must work and work until you drop. To prove that you are enough, you must be in HUFFLEPUFF!"

The hat screamed out the last word so that everyone could hear. Professor McGonagall quickly pulled the hat off her head and Alice got off the stool. She felt numb. The second table from the right was applauding her happily. A fat, cheery looking ghost was waving at her, a smile on his face. Alice walked over to the table and sat down. A girl beside her clapped her on the back, welcoming her to Hufflepuff. She stared before her, a blank look on her face. She didn't hear the name of the next student, but almost instantly, the Sorting Hat yelled "RAVENCLAW!" Alice turned to look. A first year girl was now joining the Ravenclaws at the next table. Alice couldn't help but feel that she should be right there too, but she wasn't.

"Boeker, Joseph," said Professor McGonagall. Alice watched her new friend walk up and sit on the stool. The Sorting Hat took a long time with him, but finally yelled "HUFFLEPUFF!" Alice smiled. Well, at least she'd be with one of her friends. She joined the Hufflepuffs in clapping as Joseph sat down next to her, a big smile on his face.

"Borboa, Ava Mizar."

Ava sat down, the hat covering her eyes as it had everyone before her. "HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat yelled quickly. Ava practically skipped to the table. Sitting across from Alice, she said, "I'm not in Slytherin! Isn't that the greatest?"

"Seems like there are lots of Hufflepuffs this year," said the girl who had patted Alice on the back earlier. Alice turned to get a better look at her. "I'm Elizabeth by the way," the girl said, holding out her hand. "I'm a second year." Alice shook her hand as the Sorting Hat sorted the first Gryffindor.

Next, "Dwaitwist, Dominic" was sorted into Ravenclaw and then two twin boys became Slytherins. Alice was enjoying the company of her friends so much that she barely paid attention to the other first years being sorted until "Grey, Keri" became the fourth Hufflepuff. The new girl sat down beside Ava and the four first years grinned at each other and laughed with delight as Professor McGonagall proceeded through the H's, J's, and K's, one more Hufflepuff joining them.

"Loligo, Leslie," said Professor McGonagall.

Looking at the girl, Alice recognized her instantly. It was the girl she had met when she was trying on robes, the girl who had asked about her mother's family. The hat had barely touched her head before calling out "SLYTHERIN!"

Alice blinked in surprise as Leslie walked toward the Slytherin table. Despite what house Leslie had just been sorted into, Alice couldn't help but feel that she still liked her and would want to be her friend. She tried to wave at Leslie, but Leslie didn't see and sat down with her back toward the rest of the hall at the Slytherin table.

"McFarlane, Daphne."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Alice found herself clapping automatically as a girl with long, wavy, brown hair joined the Hufflepuff table. Two more first years were sorted into Gryffindor and then another into Ravenclaw before Alice heard Professor McGonagall say "Newcomb, Blaine." Alice noticed Ava quickly cross her fingers and close her eyes. She could barely hear her mumbling "Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff."

The Sorting Hat took a long time to decide before saying "RAVENCLAW!" Ava opened her eyes, looking devastated as Blaine joined the Ravenclaw table.

"I'm sorry Ava," said Alice. "I know you two are good friends."

"Well, at least it's not Slytherin," said Ava.

"Orwell, Eve."

Alice turned to watch Eve as she took her turn at being sorted. She smiled as the hat yelled "RAVENCLAW!" _Good_, she thought. _At least someone who wanted to be in Ravenclaw ended up there_.

The next girl was sorted into Slytherin and then "Ponte, Alanna" became a Gryffindor. Alice started to lose interest in the sorting as her stomach growled loudly. She stared down at her golden plate, listening to the clapping from the Gryffindor table on the other side of the hall. She began to wonder when she'd have food to put on that plate and she barely looked away from it, even as more first years became Hufflepuffs, though "Stouffer, Steven" got her attention when he accidentally bumped the table on the way to his seat. Finally, only one first year remained to be sorted. Looking to see who it was Alice recognized Josef. He looked very nervous.

"Wynnsgard, Josef."

Josef practically ran to the stool, almost tripping over his robes. As the Sorting Hat was placed on his head, Alice's stomach growled again. _Hurry up! I'm hungry!_ And then the sorting was over. "HUFFLEPUFF!" yelled the Sorting Hat. Josef, looking very relieved, joined his friends at the Hufflepuff table and Professor McGonagall took the stool and Sorting Hat away.

A man at the center of the staff table stood up. He was tall and had a long white beard. His robes were covered in multi-colored stars and a pointed hat which was currently flopped over at an odd angle sat upon his head. Alice recognized him as Professor Dumbledore immediately from the many Dumbledore cards which she owned. "You must all be hungry," he said. "So before we talk, we will eat!" With a wave of his hand, the four house tables began to groan under the weight of a grand feast.

Alice felt as if her eyes were popping out of her head. She had never seen so many good foods in one place before! A large stuffed turkey sat right in front of her, and looking up and down the table, she saw other delights. There were sausages and rolls fresh from the oven, steamed vegetables and fruit salads, chicken and ham, lamb chops and roast beef, mashed potatoes and corn-on-the-cob! The drinks available were also astounding. There were pitchers filled with liquids of every color. In them were fruit juices, ciders, and many different flavors of tea.

Elizabeth giggled at her and the look on her face. "Welcome to Hogwarts!" she said warmly, pouring herself a glass of cider.

"Wow," was all Alice could bring herself to say. She began to load up her plate with as many different things as she could reach. Soon, her mouth was full of mashed potatoes and her plated loaded down with vegetables, turkey, and ham. When she had finished that off, she took a roll and smothered it in butter, watching it melt on the still warm bread.

"You've got to try this!" said Joseph, waving a chicken leg in her face. "The chicken's great!"

"Have you tried this tea?" asked the girl next to Ava (Alice was pretty sure her name was Keri).

"I love Hogwarts!" exclaimed another first year a ways down the table. Alice found herself laughing with delight. She felt the same way.

"Welcome to Hufflepuff!" said a voice above her head. Looking up, she saw a jolly ghost hovering in the air above the table. In fact, two of the candles lighting the table were actually _in_ him though he didn't seem to mind.

"Hello Fat Friar!" said Elizabeth. "He's the Hufflepuff ghost," she told Alice and Joseph.

"Are you really a ghost?" asked Ava. "That's so cool! I'm glad you're our ghost! You look like the happiest ghost in the room!"

The Fat Friar beamed at this praise and told Ava that she would go far with such a keen eye and positive outlook on life. With a hearty laugh, he floated further down the table to greet the other first years.

Ava began to look at the other house tables with interest. "Who are the other house ghosts?" she asked.

Elizabeth set down a roll she'd been tearing apart and pointed toward the Slytherin table. "See that ghost just sitting there? The one not talking to anyone? He's got silvery blood all over him. He's the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost. And then, Ravenclaw here on our other side," Elizabeth turned around and pointed toward the end of the Ravenclaw table, "there's a girl ghost on that side. She'd the Ravenclaw ghost, the Gray Lady. And all the way over there, at the Gryffindor table, you can see that ghost with the big ruffle at his neck, he's Sir Nicholas, but everyone calls him Nearly Headless Nick."

"Neat!" said Ava, looking in turn at each ghost.

The Great Hall steadily filled with more chatter and less eating and then, in a flash, the main meal was gone. In its place there were now desserts. Alice had eaten a lot, but one look at the goodies before her made her realize she couldn't not try some. There were fresh strawberries and whipped cream, various flavors of ice cream, cherry pie, chocolate cake, vanilla pudding, trays of fresh brownies and cookies, and cubes of jello. Alice helped herself to a brownie on top of which she put a scoop of ice cream and some whipped cream and strawberries.

"That looks good," said Keri, watching her from across the table. "I think I'll do that too." She began to create a similar desert on her own plate.

"I'm just going to stick with this vanilla pudding," said Joseph, placing a few scoops on his plate.

"Help yourself," said Keri, "but you're really missing out."

The meal began to wind down as more and more students pushed their plates away from themselves, unable to take another bite. Alice noticed that many of them kept shooting glances up at the staff table.

"It looks like Dumbledore is about to talk," said Ava. Shortly after she said this, the desserts disappeared and Professor Dumbledore stood up.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts!" he called out. "And to the first years, welcome to Hogwarts for the first time! I know that you are all tired from the feast and only want to go to your beds, but I have a few short announcements to make. Mr. Filch, the caretaker, would like me to remind you that a full list of forbidden items may be found in his office. There are five hundred and twenty-two items on that list up to date. He is strongly against students bringing any items purchased at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes to school and would like me to inform you that students caught with anything from that shop, even if the item does not yet appear on his list, will suffer the consequences none the less." Professor Dumbledore smiled after saying this. Alice would have sworn that Dumbledore himself found no offence in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes merchandise, but she couldn't be too sure.

"And now, without further ado, I would like to introduce to you our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher whom we hope will be with us for many years to come!" The students in the Great Hall began to whisper among themselves as all of their eyes turned toward one of the teachers. Beside a man with very greasy hair there sat a cloaked figure. Of course, Alice had heard all about the cursed teaching position at Hogwarts. For seven years in a row, there had been a different Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and in recent years, no one had remained in the job for more than two or three years. So, it came as no surprise to Alice that a new teacher was being introduced in her first year.

The cloaked teacher reached up his hands to his hood to push it back and finally reveal his unshadowed face to the students.

"May I present Professor Potter," said Professor Dumbledore.

Professor Potter's face was now visible to all of the students. He wore glasses and had green eyes and messy black hair. But most remarkable about his appearance was a lightning shaped scar upon his forehead. Many students had stood up to try and get a better look at his face, but no one was able to see his scar from so far away. Despite the overexcited curiosity of his soon-to-be-pupils, Professor Potter smiled warmly at them all. Alice could tell that this was going to be a wonderful year.


	4. Moving Dust

A/N: If any character is introduced from this chapter onward which I have not listed here and which is not a relative of another character, then they are not based on anyone I know and are characters which I have simply created to take up space.

Moving Dust

The feast was over and all of the students had been dismissed. A sixth year girl who was calling herself a "prefect" began to round up the Hufflepuff first years to lead them to the common room. She had done a head count during the Sorting and didn't let any of the first years escape her watch to try and get a closer look at Professor Potter. They really weren't missing out though. The older students who had surged near the staff table as soon as they were dismissed weren't given the privilege of seeing anything either. Professor Potter quickly flicked his hood back up and left the Great Hall through a side door near the staff table.

"Quickly now!" called the sixth year. The first years followed after her, squeezing through the slight traffic jam at the doors of the Great Hall. There was an older student leading the first years from the other houses as well. As they exited the Great Hall, the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws began to climb the beautiful marble staircase.

"Our common room is in the dungeons," Alice heard the Slytherin seventh year who was guiding the line of first year Slytherins say. Alice thought she recognized his voice and she stood on tip-toe to get a better look at him. To her surprise, he was the boy who had told her and her friends to begin putting on their robes on the Hogwarts Express. Blaine had guessed at the time that he was Head Boy. As he turned around to wave on the students following him to a staircase on the other side of the hall which led down, Alice saw that he wore a badge with the letters "HB" on it.

"Alice," hissed Joseph.

She quickly turned around. The line of Hufflepuffs was disappearing through a door to the right of the marble staircase. Alice hurried to catch up. Falling in step behind Joseph, she saw that there was a staircase leading down from the doorway. As Alice and Joseph reached the bottom of the staircase, the prefect nodded. "We're all here. Good. Follow me and stay close. It's easy to get lost in Hogwarts if you don't know your way around yet. Don't forget how to get back to the Great Hall. You'll need to report there for breakfast in the morning." They continued left along the hallway. It was well-lit with torches and the walls were covered in paintings. All of the paintings moved or were animated in some way, even though most of these paintings were of food. Alice watched with delight as a table in one painting set itself and then a large knife began to carve a turkey and set out slices on all of the plates. Another painting was of a banana which was trying to escape an excited monkey. The monkey had managed to partly peel the banana, but the banana was quickly sealing itself back up again as it slipped and slid out of the painting and into the next portrait.

"They're all moving!" said the girl in front of Alice. Alice quickly skipped up beside the girl, taking note that the group had just turned right down a hallway which was flanked by one portrait of a snoozing cook and another of a sunny garden. Alice stared at the girl for a moment, racking her brains for her name. Then she remembered.

"Hello Daphne," she said, extending her hand in greeting. "Are your parents muggles? Is that why you're not used to moving portraits?"

The girl looked startled to have been addressed, but she shook Alice's outstretched hand. "Well, my dad's a muggle, but I live with my mom." Daphne blushed and looked away.

"Oh," said Alice. Now she felt stupid for asking such a personal question, though it had been an honest question to ask. She was just about to let herself fall behind again when Daphne put out a hand to stop her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything. I'm alright, really. And I _was_ impressed by all the paintings. But, um, I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."

Alice grinned at Daphne. "You don't have anything to apologize for! My name's Alice Bint."

Daphne smiled. "It's nice to meet you!"

"Nearly there!" called out the sixth year. She turned right and led them down a slightly narrower hallway. It wasn't long and it led to a dead end. A huge portrait was at the end of the passage. The portrait was of a middle-aged man standing on a road lined with trees; he was holding a lantern because his painting was of nighttime. He wore brown woodsman's clothing and a brown cap. A black and white hunting dog lay on the dirt road by his feet, yawning and wagging its tail slightly.

"This is Simon Cripps, the Nightwatch," said the prefect, indicating the man in the painting.

"Don't forget Spot!" said the man, nodding at the hound at his feet. Spot lifted his head and began to wag his tail harder, his eyes fixed on the first years gathered before him.

"Sorry Mr. Cripps," said the sixth year. "This is the Nightwatch and his dog Spot," she said, reintroducing them.

"Now who are you?" asked Mr. Cripps, holding up his lantern higher. Alice finally noticed that while this hallway looked as well lit as the one they had just exited, there were no torches on the walls. All of the light came from the lantern held by the Nightwatch. Alice was impressed! While it wasn't too difficult to make paintings move, it was another thing altogether to get one to shed light.

"These are the Hufflepuff first years," said the prefect.

"Do they know the password?" asked Mr. Cripps.

"Uric!" she said. The Nightwatch nodded his head and the painting swung outward from the wall like a door. Behind it lay a portal. "Into the common room," said the prefect. She stood at the portal entrance until all of the first years had filled inside and then she entered, closing the portrait behind her.

The room they entered was rectangular with a large fireplace opposite the entrance, the Hufflepuff mascot of a black badger on a yellow background hanging above it. Small tables with chairs around them were in the corners on either side of the portal entrance and many soft, black armchairs filled the rest of the common room though a few yellow beanbags lay right in front of the fireplace. In the middle of each long wall there was an entrance way with staircases leading up.

"Welcome to the Hufflepuff common room," said the prefect. "This is where you can hang out between classes if you don't fancy the grounds or the library or somewhere else. This is your home for the next seven years. If you're tired, the dormitories are up the staircases that you can see on either side of the common room. Boys are on the left and girls on the right. Go to the door labeled 'First Years.' Your things should already be there. Just remember that the password to get into the common room is _Uric_. If you don't know the password then Mr. Cripps won't let you back into the common room. Whenever the password is changed, find a prefect to tell you what the new password is."

The portrait opened behind them and many of the older students began filing into the common room. Some of them were yawning and bid good night to their friends as they made their way into the dormitories; others began to claim favorite chairs or beanbags and settled down to talk or eat (some sixth years had smuggled extra food into the common room even though Alice couldn't figure out how anyone could have room for food after the start of term feast).

Someone tugged on Alice's sleeve. "Come on Alice! We're all going to have a look at our room!" Alice followed quickly after Ava and the other Hufflepuff first year girls. Oddly enough, the first door was labeled 'Fifth Years.' The girl in front nearly entered that door before Daphne pointed it out.

"But why would they start with fifth year?" she asked, puzzled. The girls continued up the staircase, past the sixth and seventh year dormitories and finally found themselves before a door with a sign which read 'First Years." They pushed the door open. It was just as Alice had dreamed (though in her dreams the furnishings had been blue). Five four-poster beds sporting yellow curtains lined the right wall with a trunk at the foot of each. The room was long, narrow, and window-less (similar to the common room) but it had a very cozy feeling. Thick yellow rugs lay on the floor and five small vanities and mirrors lined the wall opposite of the beds, each in line with its bed.

"Oh wow!" said Ava. She ran into the room to figure out which bed was hers. Discovering her trunk at the end of the middle bed, she threw herself onto it. "The covers are so soft!" she exclaimed. Alice walked fully into the room, leaving the door open behind her. She noticed that her bed was the last one in the room with Daphne's bed between hers and Ava's. Sitting on her trunk, she looked into her mirror. A stool with a yellow cushion on it lay under the tabletop of her vanity, out of the way. Drawers filled up the area from the floor to the tabletop on either side of the opening where the stool was.

"All of the furnishings are so nice!" said Daphne. She had pulled out her own stool and was sitting on it, running her fingers along the top of her vanity, gazing at her reflection in the mirror.

"I don't know," said Ava, now sitting up in her bed. "Too many mirrors if you ask me. It'd be so unnerving to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and to pass by so many mirrors on your way out the door."

Popping noises sounded below them. Keri, closest to the door, quickly ran out of the room. A star went whizzing past her up the stairs. "It looks like someone's setting off Filibuster Fireworks in the common room!" she said with delight. Without another word, she ran down the stairs to go look.

The other girls looked at each other for a moment before throwing themselves out the door, but Alice didn't follow them.She watched as Daphne's long, brown hair disappeared. She had the room to herself and she intended to take advantage of that. Standing up from her trunk, she quickly flipped it open and took out a smooth box about the size of a large text book or dictionary. The contents inside it "clinked" as she levered the box out of the trunk and set it on her bed.

While Alice had been trying out wands, her mother had begun to worry about her taking so long. After picking up her robes, she had done a bit of shopping for the girl. Alice had been too delighted with her wand on the way home to pay too much attention to the bags her mother was carrying, but as soon as they got home, she asked about them. From one of the bags, her mother had pulled this. Alice traced her name, engraved on the top of the box, with a finger before undoing the latch and opening it. One long bottle lay on its side on the right and many high-quality quills, wrapped in oil paper, lay on the left. In the center, cushioned with cloth, were many bottles of different colored ink. Engraved inside the lid of the box was a grid which labeled the colors of ink and where they lay. Carefully, Alice took out a few of the ink bottles and carried them over to her vanity. Then she took out the long bottle and the quills. After a little rummaging in her trunk, she found another gift from her mother: a notebook of parchment, good for artwork or writing.

Alice settled down at her vanity and began to unwrap the quills. Each feather was a different color and she quickly matched color to ink bottle, rewrapping the rest of the quills. Alice loved to write and draw. With a smile on her face, she began to draw a brown owl upon the first page of parchment, changing ink colors frequently as she added a variety of shades to the feathers of the owl. So intent was she upon the drawing that she didn't notice anyone enter the room until the person was standing at her shoulder. Picking up her quill from the parchment, she looked up at the plump girl beside her.

"Please don't stop!" said Daphne. "You're doing a lovely job! Does it bother you if someone watches?"

"No, I don't mind. Please grab a stool though. I don't like it when someone's standing over me."

Daphne dragged her stool over and propped her elbows on the corner of Alice's vanity, watching her. Shrugging slightly, Alice changed to her black quill and ink and began working on the eyes. About ten minutes later, the owl was finished and Alice stoppered her ink bottles and began to put everything but the long bottle and her notebook away.

"So you're done?" asked Daphne, straightening up. "You're a good artist. I never could have drawn such a realistic owl."

"Not quite done," said Alice, smiling at the praise. She unscrewed the lid from the tall bottle. Its glass was opaque, hiding the fact that it was filled, not with liquid, but with what looked to be very fine sand. Taking a pinch, Alice sprinkled it over her drawing. Then, holding the paper so that none of the sand fell to the ground, Alice walked over to a trashcan in the corner. Standing over the trashcan, she gently blew the sand into it.

"Oh no! Is it ruined?" asked Daphne. Sure enough, it looked ruined. The ink had blurred together and many parts looked smudged, but then the ink began to waver and quickly regained its former place. The owl blinked, ruffled its feathers, and then began to hop from one leg to the other. Daphne gasped and ran back over to Alice's vanity, picking up the bottle of sand. "Moving Dust: For the serious artist," she read. "Make your artwork move and come to life!" Daphne looked up at Alice. "I've heard of this. But, isn't it expensive?"

Alice was balancing on her bed, pinning the owl up on the wall over her pillow. "Yes," she said, straightening the picture. The owl opened its beak in a silent squawk. "I couldn't believe that my mother had bought it for me. It was a gift as I went off to Hogwarts. Actually, I told her I would have really liked an owl. I mean, an owl surely couldn't be too much more expensive than this, right?" She turned back toward Daphne. "But she said I didn't need an owl and wasn't ready to take care of one yet. In fact, she told me to draw an owl, stick it over my bed, and that if I study really hard in transfiguration, I'd eventually be able to transfigure it into a real owl." Alice shot a dubious glance at her artwork. "I'm not so sure I believe that, but I really wanted to try out my inks right now and that's all I could think to draw." All of a sudden, Alice got a sinking feeling in her stomach. How could she have forgotten?

"Could you draw me something?" asked Daphne.

"Sure," said Alice hurriedly, "but not right now." She felt like smacking herself on the forehead. Taking out her school quills, ink, and parchment, she began to write. "I was going to write my parents to let them know what house I'm in! Do you think I'll be able to send it tonight? I bet it's too late to walk to the Owlery now. It also doesn't help that I don't even know where that it!"

It didn't take long to write, _I'm in Hufflepuff, can you imagine that?_, so Alice had the letter ready in no time and was running out the room, Daphne on her heels. There were many more people in the common room than Alice had been expecting. A wizard radio in the corner was tuned into the WWN (Wizarding Wireless Network) and stars of different colors and sizes were bouncing off the walls and ceiling, evidence of the many Filibuster Fireworks that had been set off. It looked like some sort of party were going on though Alice wasn't sure what they were celebrating. She began to look around, hoping to spot a prefect or someone who could help her.

A seventh year girl was leaning against the wall not too far away, her arms crossed across her chest and a look of deep disapproval on her face. Alice inched along the wall toward her. "Excuse me," she said as she neared the girl. The noise in the room easily drowned out her voice. Getting a little closer, Alice tried again, this time louder. "Excuse me!" she said. The seventh year looked down at her, her face softening as she made eye contact.

"May I help you with something?"

"Yes, um, I have this letter. I promised I would let my parents know where I was sorted. But, isn't it too late for me to be wandering the halls?"

The seventh year nodded and held out her hand to accept the letter. "Don't worry about it. As a seventh year and a prefect, I can be out later than you. I'll get your letter to the Owlery." Alice handed over the letter, feeling very relieved and watched as the girl exited the common room.

"Alice! So you did come down here! I thought you'd stayed in the room." Ava came over to her, offering her a plate with some cake on it.

"Oh no, I couldn't," said Alice, holding up her hands in protest. "I'm stuffed from the feast!"

Ava shrugged and set the cake down. She leaned on the wall next to Alice, grinning at the common room. "Isn't this wonderful?"

"Um, yeah, I guess. Is there going to be a party like this every start of term, do you think?"

"At least this year and the next," was Ava's reply. Alice looked at her with obvious confusion. "You _have_ been down here, right?" asked Ava, seeing her look.

Alice shook her head. "I only just came down. I was drawing and then I had to write a letter to my parents."

"Well, this isn't just a start of term party. It's a birthday party! See that boy over there wearing the party hat?" She pointed out a boy sitting before the fireplace. "He's a sixth year. September the first is his birthday. His friends do this for him every year," Ava began to giggle, "and by the look on his face, I bet he wishes they wouldn't."

"Happy Birthday Rodney!" Alice heard two girls say as they walked past the birthday boy.

"Remind me to never tell anyone when my birthday is," said Daphne. Ava began to laugh at her, but she didn't ask to know when Daphne's birthday was. Watching Rodney's hat light up and shoot out confetti, Alice thought it might be better to keep her birthday a secret too.

Not long afterward, Alice noticed Daphne retreating to their room again, and realizing that she was becoming tired herself, Alice followed after her. Entering their room, she saw Keri sitting up in the first bed, already in her pajamas. She covered her mouth with a hand as she yawned. "See you in the morning," she said, sliding the curtains around her four-poster closed. Alice and Daphne changed into pajamas and got into their own beds. Alice never heard the other first years getting into bed because exhaustion overcame her and she was asleep moments after her head hit the pillow.


	5. Starting Classes 1

A/N: I will not use this space to give away any spoilers about HBP, but I must say this, after reading the book. This fanfic will continue as I began it. I will not make any character changes, so, from this point onward, this fanfic is AU. Live with it!

Characters introduced in this chapter: Real life friend: Lauron - Alyson Fitzpatrick; Internet friends: Tinkerbell816 - Bella Luciano, lovingfredandgeorge19 - Laney Thornton, Molly4Minister - Angelica Bones

Starting Classes 1

A dumpy looking witch with a bit of leaf in her hair and a fine layer of dirt on her person began bustling around the Hufflepuff table about halfway through breakfast. She handed out schedules quickly to the seventh years, fifth years, fourth years, third years, and second years at the table. Those students began looking over their schedules, exclaiming in delight or distress based on when they had certain classes. "Just first and sixth years left!" the witch said brightly. "First years, where are you?" she looked down the table and spotted the new faces. All of the first years had sat together at the end of the table which was furthest from the staff table and closest to the door. The witch approached them, a smile on her face. "Hello and welcome to Hufflepuff! I'll be your head of house! My name is Professor Sprout and I teach herbology." She looked down at the papers in her hand and began passing them out. Alice was surprised to see a schedule with her name on it passed to her. Professor Sprout, apparently, already knew all of their names. Alice barely perceived the professor walking halfway down the table to discuss schedules with the sixth years as she surveyed her own class schedule.

"Look," said Ava. "We have potions first thing! My dad's favorite teacher when he was at Hogwarts was the potions professor!"

"We have flying right after lunch," said Daphne, looking a little green.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," said the girl next to her who was eying the food in front of them with more scrutiny than the schedule in her hand. "I wouldn't mind learning how to ride a broom correctly. We never had one at home." She chose some cereal and poured it into the bowl before her.

"I don't mind brooms, exactly," said Daphne. Looking slightly embarrassed, she continued, "I just don't like heights. Surely that makes since Bella."

The girl looked up from her cereal which she was pouring milk over. "Really? Well it's only one class."

"I heard we only have flying for one year," said a boy across the table from them helpfully. He had brown hair and blue-green eyes behind glasses. He took a doughnut from a plate in front of him and bit into it. After swallowing, he pointed down at the schedule and said, "But look! We have astronomy Thursday night. I didn't think we were allowed to be out that late."

Alice, on Daphne's other side from Bella, checked this. "It is sort of late, isn't it? I guess it's just an exception to the rule since it's a class and all." She looked across the table at the guy who had pointed this out and had just finished off his doughnut. "What's your name? I don't think I caught it before."

"My name's Steven," he said. Alice opened her mouth to introduce herself but Steven interrupted her. "And your name's Alice."

Alice blinked. "Um, yeah, it is. How'd you know that?"

"Well, you were the first person Sorted. I paid real close attention at the beginning of the Sorting."

"Oh. Well, that's true." Alice tried to not think of being the first student Sorted. That moment of embarrassment and fear was in the past and that's where she liked it. She looked back down at her schedule and tried to drown out the talking around her as she got a good idea of when her classes were. _History of Magic is on Monday and Friday_, she thought. She wouldn't say so out loud though. She had a sneaking suspicion that few of her classmates would be thrilled about a class which sounded boring and which would, undoubtedly, be all books and no wandwork.

* * *

The Hufflepuffs had potions with the Slytherins. Alice was the person who suggested that they leave the Great Hall as soon as the first year Slytherins stood up. She figured, since the Slytherins' common room was in the dungeons, they might have a better idea of where to find the classroom than any of the Hufflepuffs would. So, keeping on the heels of the Slytherins (some of whom seemed eager to lose the Hufflepuffs in the maze of tunnels underneath the school) they made it to their first class on time.

The professor made a face as if he could smell something really nasty on the Hufflepuffs as they walked into the room, and, as if it were the natural order of things, the two houses segregated themselves instantly, the Slytherins on the left side of the classroom and the Hufflepuffs on the right side. Alice found herself at a table with Ava and Steven. At the front table on the left side of the classroom, she easily spotted Leslie and another girl with straight black hair and a creamy complexion. They were both giggling over something written on a paper which Leslie held. The professor walked right past them and stood, leering, above Keri.

"Did I tell the class to take out their wands?" he asked her.

Looking near terrified, Keri shook her head and quickly put her wand away. Continuing to ignore the two giggling Slytherin girls, the professor began to stride around the room, dictating to the class. "This class is not like any other class which you will take at this school. Potions is more than a magic. It is a science. I am Professor Snape, the potions master. You will arrive at this class on time and with any materials which you might need. You should, in fact, already have your cauldron out and on your desk. We will be making a simple potion today, but even so, I don't expect many of you will get it even half right."

Many students on both sides of the room began to set up their cauldrons noisily upon the tables before them. "You will also need the ingredients which you should have purchased at an apothecary before term started. I expect you all to be quiet. Simply follow the directions on the board," Professor Snape flicked his wand at the board which instantly held the instructions for a one hour potion on it, "and you should be done before class is over." Snape rounded on Josef who had chosen to sit at the table behind Alice's table. "Why is your cauldron not out yet? Didn't you hear me tell the class that you should take out your cauldrons?"

"I … um," said Josef.

"What is your name?"

"J-Josef Wynnsgard, sir."

"Ten points from Hufflepuff, Mr. Wynnsgard, for not paying attention to my instructions."

"What?" said Ava, turning around to confront the professor. "But that's not fair! Three, no, four Slytherin students don't have their cauldrons out yet!"

Snape looked down his nose at Ava. "Did I ask for your opinion, miss…" he paused, obviously wishing Ava to supply her name.

"Borboa!" said Ava fiercely.

Snape looked taken aback and he stared harder into her face, recognition dawning on him. "You're in Hufflepuff?" he asked, not bothering to mask the surprise in his voice.

"Yes I am!" said Ava. She shrugged off Steven who was trying to get her to calm down and turn back around. No one in the class was paying any attention to their cauldrons or the potion up on the board, entranced by the scene Snape and Ava were giving them. Snape seemed to notice this.

"Well, that's just surprising," he said to Ava. In the next moment he had stormed past her to his desk. It was obvious that the time for talking had past. The last few Slytherins, Leslie among them, took out their cauldrons and the class got to work measuring out ingredients.

* * *

After lunch the Hufflepuffs headed out onto the Hogwarts grounds for their first flying lesson. They had this class with the Ravenclaws. Ava took no time at all to walk up to Blaine's side. A boy with blue eyes and brown hair was already walking with Blaine. He introduced himself as Dominic and the three began chatting animatedly to each other about their first lessons as they headed toward the Quidditch pitch. Alice let the trio get ahead of her. From what she could hear the students around her saying, it seemed that the Ravenclaws had had herbology with the Gryffindors that morning. A few of the girls were complaining about what state their fingernails would be in after seven years of sifting through dirt in the greenhouses. Remembering Professor Sprout from that morning, smiling happily down at the first years, Alice felt that it couldn't be that bad. _It must at least be better than potions_, she mused. _Professor Snape so obviously hates any student who's not a Slytherin that I'm surprised Dumbledore lets him teach. He must be _really _good at making potions._

"Here's one of the people I met on the Hogwarts Express!" Alice heard a familiar voice saying. In the next moment, a hand came down on her shoulder and she turned her head to see Eve and another Ravenclaw girl with eyes as green as Eve's, but brown hair instead of red. "Alyson," said Eve, talking to her friend, "this is Alice. Alice, this is my friend Alyson. She has muggle parents, just like me!"

Alice smiled warmly at the new girl, but there was no time in which to hold a conversation. The students had just reached the Quidditch pitch and a slim woman with short gray hair and remarkably hawk-like eyes was standing beside two rows of ten brooms each which had been lain out on the ground.

"Quickly everyone!" she called out in a sharp voice. "Pick a broom and stand to the left side of it! I am Madam Hooch and I will be instructing you in flying lessons."

The students hurried forward to claim a broom. Unlike in their potions class, Alice noticed that the students did not segregate themselves. There was a mixture of both Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws in each line. Alice chose a broom between Eve and Daphne.

"Hold out your right hand over your broom," instructed Madam Hooch. The students obeyed. "Now focus on your broom and say 'up'!"

Twenty voices yelled "Up!" at their brooms. This was immediately followed by a round of giggles as most people's brooms simply rolled over on the ground or didn't move at all. Alice's broom had been one of them that had rolled over. Movement out of the corner of her eye forced her to look. Alyson, on the other side of Eve, had managed to get her broom off the ground, but it was hovering halfway between her hand and the grass. Her face was turning slightly red as she concentrated. She called "up" one more time and snatched the broom as it rose higher in the air. In fact, a few other students were managing to get their brooms off the ground, but few of them could get the broom to rise too far, despite yelling "up" many more times. Alice focused on her broom once again. "Up!" she yelled. It vibrated slightly but remained stubbornly on the ground. On her other side, she heard Daphne scream. The girl's broom had zoomed up into the air and bypassed her hand to hover above her head. Looking unsettled, she snatched it out of the air.

Just as Alice had turned back to her own broom, Madam Hooch blew a whistle hanging around her neck. "That's enough! If you haven't been able to get your broom off the ground, bend down and pick it up. I will now show you how to mount it correctly." Blushing slightly, Alice bent down and picked up her broom. But when she noticed that over half of the other students were doing the same thing, she didn't feel so bad.

Madam Hooch walked around the students, correcting their hand grips or how they were sitting on their brooms. As she passed Alice, she simply nodded and walked onto Daphne. Breathing a sigh of relief that she at least knew how to sit upon a broom correctly, Alice watched as Madam Hooch corrected Daphne's seat, informing the girl that she would slide off the end of her broom once in the air if she didn't sit a certain way. Daphne's face started to turn the same shade of green which Alice remembered from breakfast and she quickly fixed her posture, holding herself as stiffly as possible in imitation of Madam Hooch's instructions.

The rest of the class was fairly uneventful. They were not given permission to actually fly and instead focused on hovering a few feet off the ground and then touching back down again. Alice was satisfied with the fact that she actually got off the ground (about a fourth of the students seemed able to do no more than jump feebly), and she was less embarrassed by the fact that nearly all of her touchdowns resulted in her tumbling off her broom when she noticed that almost everyone else was having this same problem. When Madam Hooch collected their brooms and dismissed the class, Alice trooped back up to the castle with a strong feeling that she would be sore in the morning.

* * *

The last class that day was History of Magic. Alice was happy to see that the Hufflepuffs were having this class with the Ravenclaws. There was something about taking her, hopefully-to-be favorite class with the house that she had anticipated joining since she was a little girl.

"History," said a boy ahead of her, "is definitely not my best subject. I can never remember all those names and dates."

"Don't be too eager to bash the class before the first lesson, Dominic," said Alyson, sitting down in one of the front seats of the room. All of the students were making their way into desks. Alice found herself looking around the room for the professor, but the only people in the room were students. She sat down next to Alyson, right in front of the teacher's desk and took out her bulky copy of _A History of Magic_ by Bathilda Bagshot and some parchment, ink, and a quill.

_Professor Binns_, she thought, _who is Professor Binns?_ As if in answer to her question, the professor took that moment to enter the classroom. An old, boring looking ghost flew straight through the chalkboard and settled himself at the teacher's desk. Someone (a Ravenclaw whom Alice did not recognize) screamed as the ghost appeared. The ghost paid no attention to the scream or to the class who were now laughing at the girl for being startled at the approach of a ghost when all of the first years already knew that Hogwarts was full of ghosts.

"I am Professor Binns," said the ghost, "and this is your first year of History of Magic." With only this short introduction, he charged right into the lesson. Twenty students hurried to ink their quills and begin taking notes about the creation of the Ministry of Magic. Alice, who had always been interested in history and had read a few books on it in the past, was happy to discover she already knew most of the facts which were coming out of Professor Binns' transparent mouth. _This class is going to be a breeze!_ she thought.

When the lesson was over, Alice blew on the ink to dry it. A quick glance around the room showed her that, except for Alyson, no other student seemed to have many notes. In fact, two seats behind her, Bella had actually fallen asleep over her parchment and had nothing more than a dot of ink where her quill had been resting. It had not gone unnoticed by Alice that Professor Binns was an accomplished monotone, but she had still found the subject matter intriguing. _What is more interesting than stories of the witches and wizards who perfected the spells we use today or of the struggles we have had controlling vicious magical creatures and getting along with other magic users?_

* * *

Bella was the person who woke up the girls in the morning the next day. "Wands!" she yelled. "We get to use wands today!" Ava fell out of her bed with a thump. The other girls were up in a flash. Alice had her wand in her hand so fast that she would have sworn she'd been holding onto it all night.

First on the Tuesday morning schedule was double charms with the Gryffindors. The feelings among the first year Hufflepuffs were those of extreme excitement.

"That was such bad luck to have potions, flying, and history of magic on our first day. Aren't those the only classes where we don't use wands?" asked Daphne as they all began to pull on their robes.

"No," said Keri, stopping on her way out the door. "Astronomy doesn't sound like a wand class, does it? And then, what about herbology?"

"Oh yeah," said Daphne. "I guess I forgot. Anyway, I'm glad we have charms today. Isn't Professor Flitwick that really short teacher?"

"Yeah," said Ava, packing her bag with the books she would need. "I think he's really cute!"

Alice began to giggle furiously at this statement. "Cute!" she said, "I know what you mean, but it sounds so funny for you to call a teacher cute! Like you have a crush on him or something."

"I do not!" said Ava, looking affronted. But then she began to laugh too. Keri had already gone on ahead, but soon the other four girls followed, laughing the whole way down to the common room.

"What's so funny?" asked Steven, walking down from the boys' dormitory with Joseph. The girls just laughed harder and refused to answer.

Walking into the charms classroom after breakfast, the Hufflepuffs got their first good look at the first year Gryffindors who sat on the far side of the Great Hall during meals. They looked like a pleasant enough group, and Bella and Daphne walked over to a girl with auburn colored hair right away.

"Hi Angelica!" hailed Bella, "Thanks again for that chocolate frog! I still can't believe I forgot to take my money with me on the train! I'll pay you back."

Angelica waved her away. "Don't mention it. Let's just say you owe me a chocolate frog. They're my favorite candy anyway."

"Alright," said Bella. "Hey, this is my friend Daphne. Can we sit with you?"

"Sure. My friend here goes by Laney." She motioned toward a girl with long, straight, golden blond hair who had already sat down and taken out her books.

Someone tugged on Alice's sleeve. "Alice, come sit over here!" It was Ava, and Steven was right behind her. The three of them chose a corner of the room and sat down. Professor Flitwick had just entered the room.

"Miss!" he said, pointing at a girl with a lot of freckles. "Could you help me with these books?" He had a very squeaky voice and Alice poked Ava in the shoulder and began to giggle again. Steven gave them a curious look but didn't ask what they were laughing about.

"Thank you miss…"

"Ponte," said the girl.

"Miss Ponte," said Professor Flitwick, nodding. The girl went back to her seat and the professor climbed onto the books which she had helped him to stack. A few girls in the room "awwed" at the small man, but he was either used to this or else didn't get what they meant by it, because Professor Flitwick smiled widely at the class and waved his hands for silence. "Today," he said, "we are going to be practicing a special wand movement which is used in many elementary charms spells."

A rustle sounded through the class as all of the students took their wands out.

"It is called, the swish," Professor Flitwick gave his wand a slow swishing movement which most of the students copied, "and flick," Professor Flitwick produced a nice flick with his wand.

Throughout the rest of the period, Professor Flitwick continued to demonstrate the "swish and flick" from upon his stack of books and called out to individual students from time to time to tell them what they were doing wrong or to award points to either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff when someone had done a very nice "swish and flick."

When it was all said and done, Alice's first class with a wand wasn't as spectacular as she had probably envisioned it before. She hadn't spoken a spell or done any actual magic, but she had used a wand and that's all that really mattered.


	6. Starting Classes 2

Characters introduced in this chapter: Internet friends: phoenixlament - Jadea Dalziel, Watermont - Anne Lacey

Starting Classes 2

Wednesday morning saw the first year Hufflepuffs standing outside greenhouse one, waiting for Professor Sprout. Just moments before the door to the greenhouse was opened, the Slytherins came marching into view.

"Hurry, hurry! Into the greenhouse first years!" called Professor Sprout. She smiled warmly at all of the students as they filed inside. Once inside, the first years saw that many stations were set up around the room, grouped around small, potted bushes. Alice found herself at a station with Joseph and Josef.

"You won't need your dragon hide gloves this morning," said Professor Sprout, noticing a few students slipping gloves on their hands. "These flutterby bushes aren't really dangerous, but they need care. As you will notice, there are clippers at each station. Today, I would like these flutterby bushes to be edged. Two people can hold the bush while the third person clips." Sprout looked around at the students, as if expecting them to start working right away.

Steven raised his hand slowly into the air. "Yes Stouffer," said Professor Sprout.

"Um, Professor, why do we have to hold the bush?" he asked, a bit anxiously.

"Why, I thought that'd be obvious," said Sprout, approaching the nearest flutterby bush beside which stood three Slytherin boys. She snatched up the clippers, but as soon as she got them near the bush, it began to shake very violently, preventing her from snapping off any of its leaves. "Flutterby bushes shake whenever anything gets near them. It's a defense mechanism. If a creature which wants to eat the leaves comes near, the bush will start to shake, scaring the creature away. Most beasts believe an enemy to be hiding within the cover of the bush." The professor set down the clippers. Slowly, the flutterby bush's tremors stopped and it looked again like nothing more than an innocent bush from a muggle garden, however overgrown it had become since the last time it had been trimmed. "I would like all of your bushes to look like this by the end of class," said Professor Sprout, pointing at a bush near the front of the class which looked sickly and naked due to its recent and vicious trimming, "and you should take turns clipping and holding the bush so that you don't tire too much. You may start!"

Josef and Joseph volunteered to hold the bush first while Alice clipped at it with the clippers. First years let out yells and curses all around the greenhouse as the vicious shaking of the flutterby bushes riddled their hands and forearms with small cuts and scrapes. If imaginable though, the students holding the clippers were having an even tougher time than those trying to hold the bushes steady. Even with two people battling against the bushes, they continued to vibrate, and the people with the clippers had to work hard to clip off the excess leaves and twigs and had to also be careful to not get their clippers anywhere near the hands and fingers of their friends.

A little less than halfway through the double class period, Ava let out a shriek of a greater magnitude than any of the other yells around the room. Josef, who was then trying to snap at a branch which had been eluding him for a few minutes, set the clippers down and turned to look. Alice and then Joseph let go of their flutterby bush.

"I'm sorry! Oh I'm so sorry!" wailed Bella as Ava clutched her left hand to her chest, a few tears sliding down her face. Professor Sprout bustled over to their station. She took hold of Ava's hand, which was bleeding. The professor shook her head. "Cut by the clippers. You'll need to go to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey will set you straight in no time."

"Can I take her?" asked Bella. She looked near tears herself.

"Yes, Luciano. You can take her." The class watched as the two girls left, but then Sprout got their attention again. "McFarlane, you may work at this station now. Come on everyone, you still have flutterby bushes to trim!" Daphne, who had begun to look lost, joined the next station.

By the end of class, no one was without scratches and Alice could hear a Slytherin at the next station complaining that they should have been wearing dragon hide gloves after all. "Very good work, Boeker!" said Professor Sprout as she passed by Alice's station. It was true that Joseph was doing a very good job. Alice and Josef had discovered this during the beginning of class and had held onto the flutterby bush more than Joseph so that he could trim it. "Ten points to Hufflepuff!"

Alice smiled in spite of the fact that the bush was rattling so hard that her entire body was shaking. "I d-don't know how y-y-you do it," she said.

Joseph reached the clippers in and snapped down on a branch just before it could move away. "It's not that hard," he said.

"Alright class!" said Professor Sprout. "I believe that that will be enough. Let go of your flutterby bush and stand away please!"

Everyone obeyed, looking only too happy to do so. Within the next few seconds, all of the bushes had ceased their rattling. Looking around the room, Alice smiled happily. Except for the bush which Ava had been working at earlier, all of the bushes now looked severely maimed, but none so much as her own. As the class left the greenhouse, Alice clapped Joseph on the shoulder. "You're pretty good at this stuff! I'm glad to have you as a lab partner!" Joseph smiled shyly, but didn't say anything.

* * *

Ava and Bella joined the Hufflepuffs at lunch. Neither of them had as much as a scratch on them, and a few of the other first years made comments of how a trip to the hospital wing might do them good as well. None of them made a move though. After lunch, they would all be attending their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and none of them would have missed that if they didn't have to. Throughout lunch, they kept shooting glances up at the staff table. There, Professor Potter sat, cloak drawn around himself like usual. As soon as he stood though, the first year Hufflepuffs all clamored to leave as well. Alice noticed a similar behavior among the first year Ravenclaws at the next table. 

The first years were at the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom before the professor even showed up. Professor Potter wasn't long in coming though. He emerged from behind a tapestry on the wall moments later and strode down the hallway to his classroom, opening up the door and motioning for the first years to enter. As Alice walked by him, she glanced quickly up into his face. It was in shadow, due to the hood over his head, but she was pretty sure that she had spotted his scar. A mixture of excitement and fear built up in her chest and she made her way toward the nearest seat. The desks closest to the teacher's desk were already full, so Alice found herself a few seats back from the front. No one chose a desk in the back of the classroom.

Once everyone was seated, Professor Potter closed the door and walked over to his desk. Each footfall seemed to be magnified in the tensely quiet room. The professor turned his back on the class, whipped his hooded cloak off his shoulders, and laid it on his chair. Then he turned to face the class.

Every student seemed to lean forward in their desks as one. The man before them had black messy hair with a few streaks of gray in it. His hair was covering his forehead too efficiently to detect a scar. His face looked like it had once been handsome, but pain and sorrow had changed it forever. He was of a solid build, but he still looked limber enough to be the wonderful seeker that Alice had heard he used to be. Most remarkable about his appearance though, were his eyes. They were a bright green, and staring into those eyes, Alice felt as if she were looking into an abyss of intense feeling. Those eyes had seen so much, but the man behind them had still lived to tell about it.

"Welcome to your first year of Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Professor Potter in a clear voice. "Can anyone tell me what Defense Against the Dark Arts is?" He scanned the room, apparently certain that there would be at least one student in the class who had all the answers to every question.

At first, no one moved, but then Blaine's hand rose into the air.

"Yes?" said Professor Potter.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts is where you fight against dark wizards and dark creatures. It's the spells that you have to know to do those things," said Blaine.

"Yes," said the professor, "and no." Blaine shifted a bit in his seat, a slightly annoyed look on his face. "Defense Against the Dark Arts is the study of defensive spells to use against dark wizards and dark creatures, just like Mr.…"

"Newcomb," supplied Blaine.

"Just like Mr. Newcomb said, but it is more than that. More than any other class which you will take at Hogwarts, this class combines all of your skills. When you're out in the real world, if you come up across something or someone who wishes to hurt you, just knowing all the spells which you will learn in this class won't help you. What if it's a plant that you come up across? You must know a bit about herbology. What if it's a creature that we don't study in this class? Care of Magical Creatures would help you to identify the creature and know how to handle it. But even memorizing every book in the library, though I doubt that's possible, still wouldn't be enough. Not everyone can do Defense Against the Dark Arts. Some people freeze up and can't think of what to do, other people forget everything they've ever learned, and some people are just too slow. No matter how well I teach you, I want you all to know, to always know, that Defense Against the Dark Arts is more than the wand waving that will happen in this classroom. Defense Against the Dark Arts, once you get out there, is you and your guts. It's as simple as that."

"Wow!" Alice heard someone say. She didn't know who it was.

"Today, we'll be learning a simple, but useful, spell. Please get out your wands." Twenty students scrambled to take out their wands. "But I warn you. It's not as spectacular a spell as you are all expecting. But, if you are flying through a storm and you lose your way, this spell will help you. This is called the Four-Point Spell." Professor Potter took out his wand and laid it flat on his hand. He said "point me" and the wand moved of its own accord to point toward the windows. The professor then pointed toward the windows with his free hand. "That way is north. If you do the spell correctly, your wand will always point north. This spell requires no special wand movements or weird pronunciations, so most of you should catch on very quickly. You can try now."

The classroom rang with the sounds of many people commanding their wands to "point me." The first time that Alice tried it, she was happy to see her wand move … until she noticed that, instead of turning to point toward the window, her wand was rolling off her hand. It clattered onto the ground. Blushing, Alice reached down to pick it up.

"Look, I did it!" said the girl beside her. Alice turned to look. Sure enough, the girl's wand was pointing at the windows. The girl turned her wand to point toward south, said "point me" and Alice watched as it swung around again to point toward the windows.

"Very good," said Professor Potter, walking between them. "What is your name?"

The girl lifted her steel grey eyes to look at the professor. "My name's Jadea Dalziel," she said.

"Five points to Ravenclaw, Dalziel. Keep up the good work." He continued to walk around the room, helping the students who were having trouble with the spell. He didn't walk back by where Alice was sitting, but thankfully, she got the spell on her own on the fourth try. It brought a smile to her face to say "point me" and to watch her short wand spin around to point north.

* * *

The next day, the Hufflepuffs joined the Slytherins in the Astronomy Tower for their astronomy class. The walls of their classroom were covered with pictures of constellations, planets, and the cross-sections of celestial bodies. Just like every other picture in the castle, these were moving. One poster behind the teacher's desk gave the students a look of Earth, as it would look from a spaceship circling around the planet. Another painting glided through the solar system, stopping briefly at each planet. Other pieces of artwork showed the movement of the stars over centuries of time. 

The witch standing before the teacher's desk was Professor Sinistra. She had pale skin from lack of sun and limp, thin, blond hair. Her eyes were such a light blue that they often looked eerily white. Her robes were black, making her paleness only that much more striking and other-worldly.

"Find your seats," said Professor Sinistra softly. She was, by far, the most soft-spoken professor which the first years had encountered. She did not lecture to the class or give much instruction at all. She simply pointed up to the board where she had written out vocabulary for the students and the first years obeyed by pulling out their parchment and quills and jotting down all of the words and their definitions.

It was a fairly basic list of words and Alice became bored as she wrote down the simple definitions of astronomy, star, planet, satellite, asteroid, comet, solar system, star system, galaxy, cluster of galaxies, supercluster, and universe. None of these words seemed remotely difficult to understand to her. It was like a lesson in common sense. She didn't need it spelled out to her to understand that a supercluster was obviously larger than a cluster of galaxies which was itself larger than a single galaxy. And yet, the list of words continued. It took Alice awhile to realize that the first vocabulary word, astronomy, was no longer on the board. In fact, most of the first words were gone. _Magic_, she thought, _the professor is magicking the list to make it longer as we write!_ Nothing Alice could do could change this though, so she simply continued to write, hoping that the constantly-changing list up on the board would not pass her up.

As Alice was finishing up her definition of light-year, Professor Sinistra said, "That will be all for today. I will be seeing all of you tonight on top of this tower for your first night of observation. Good day."

Many yawning students gathered together their things, massaged the cramps out of their hands, and shuffled out the door.

* * *

Finally, the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors were starting their last subject. The teacher who had first greeted the first years now welcomed them into her classroom and ordered them to their seats. 

"Welcome to Transfiguration," said Professor McGonagall sharply. "In this room you will be doing some of the most difficult magic which exists. Transfiguration is both very complex and very dangerous, so there will be absolutely _no_ messing around in my classroom. If you play around in here, then you will leave and not come back! I have warned you!"

McGonagall pulled out her wand, tapped her desk, and it became a lioness. A few students gasped and screamed, but the roar of the lioness covered up all other sounds in the room. With a wave of the professor's wand, the lioness turned back into a desk. Excited chatter broke out around the room, but a stern look from McGonagall quieted the room instantly.

"It will be years before any of you begin transfiguring furniture into animals," said Professor McGonagall. "But here is where you'll start." She pointed toward the board where a list of complicated-looking notes was written. The students hastened to write them down. Alice was at least happy to see that the notes didn't change as she wrote, so once she was done writing them all down, there was nothing else to write.

As the last few students set down their quills, the professor began walking briskly around the room, setting down a match before each student. "If you follow your notes," she said, "you should be able to transfigure these matches into needles. Please start as soon as you're ready."

About half of the students in the room began saying the Latin incantation for the transfiguration and tapping their matches, but without result. In fact, nothing happened around the room for about half an hour, but the first bit of action was not a successful transfiguration. A girl with shoulder-length black hair in the next row pointed her wand at the match on her desk, spoke the incantation, and the match, along with all of her notes, burst into flame. She yelped and pushed her chair back forcefully, nearly toppling over onto her back.

Professor McGonagall stormed over from across the room, putting out the fire with a wave of her wand. "Please, Miss Lacey, _tap_, don't _stab_, your match." She waved her wand at the desk and parchment, repairing it to appear unburned and recovering the notes of the young Gryffindor. "Are you hurt?" she asked, looking at the girl critically. Lacey gulped, but shook her head. "I'll get you a new match." The professor made her way back to the front of the room and returned with a new match. Then she looked around the room. Every student was staring at her and Lacey. "Did I give you permission to stop your work?"

Many startled students began trying to transfigure their matches again. Near the end of the double class period, the girl sitting next to Lacey gasped and then held up … a needle! "Look Anne!" she said to Lacey. "I did it! I turned a match into a needle!"

"Very good," said Professor McGonagall. "Ten points to Gryffindor, Ponte. Maybe you could help Lacey out."

Anne blushed a bit at this comment, but the freckled girl holding the needle turned toher and began helping her with the movement of her wand, obviously not taking the professor's comment as an insult at all.

"I'll never get this," said someone behind Alice. She turned around to see Bella, rolling her match back and forth across her desk with the tip of her wand.

"Well, you never will that way," said a Gryffindor next to her.

"But it's just so complicated," said Bella. Sure enough, her notes looked immensely complicated, covered in cross-outs and with some of the notes squeezed into the margins.

The golden haired Gryffindor pushed her own clear notes onto Bella's desk. "Look, I don't really get it either, but maybe we could both use my notes. My name's Laney."

"Hehe, I already knew that," said Bella. "We met in Charms, remember?"

"Oh yeah, that's right. It's Bella, right?"

Before Bella could say anything though, Professor McGonagall was standing over the two of them. "If you're already chatting, then surely you can both transfigure your matches. Let me see." Both girls attempted the spell again. Neither succeeded. "My classroom is not a social room. Luciano and Thornton, you have extra homework tonight. Practice this spell. I expect your matches to be turned into needles by next week."

Within a few more mintues, the class period was over. Only Alanna Ponte had succeeded in turning her match into a needle. Alice had no idea how many times she had tried the spell without success.

* * *

The ten first year Hufflepuffs all clustered around the portrait hole. Despite the late hour, they were all very awake and excited. This was the only time that they would be allowed out of the common room after hours. All they had to do was wait for the prefect who would escort them to and from the Astronomy Tower. At 11:30, a sixth year prefect walked down from the boy's dorms, stretched, and counted the first years before him. 

"Good. You're all here. My name is James. I'll be in charge of you as you attend astronomy this year. Please stay together and keep up. As long as you're with me, you won't get in trouble. But if you start to wander off on your own, I can't help you. Mr. Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris, are experts at finding students who are wandering the halls after hours." James exited the portrait hole and motioned for the first years to follow. They all hurried through the hole. Josef actually fell out of the hole in his haste to keep up. Alice put down her hand and helped him to his feet.

Halfway to the Astronomy Tower, Daphne clutched her hands together. "I forgot my telescope!" she practically squealed.

"Too late now," said James over his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Daphne," said Keri. "You can share with me. It's not like the stars are going to be moving so fast that we won't be able to keep up unless we watch them constantly." Alice and Ava began to giggle at this.

Arriving at the top of the tower, the Hufflepuffs found that the Slytherins were already there. "I'll be back after your observation is done," said James, waving farewell to the first years.

"Alright class," said Professor Sinistra in a whisper. Her black robes blended into the night, but her pale skin and hair seemed to nearly glow in the dark. "Tonight's lesson will not be that difficult. We will be finding the North Star. It doesn't move, so it is often a good place to start whenever looking for a certain star or constellation. After finding the North Star, we will be looking at Jupiter and Mars through our telescopes."

"Point me," Alice heard Keri whisper to her wand. Turning around to look, Alice smiled. She turned in the direction that the wand had pointed. At least the North Star shouldn't be too difficult to locate. While not the most exciting class, Alice figured that astronomy wasn't so bad.


	7. Lazing Around

A/N: I'm sorry for taking so long to update this story, but I've been very busy with schoolwork and will continue to be so for the rest of the semester. You shouldn't expect more than one more update of this story before December, if even that, but I hope to have more time to write after then.

Character introduced in this chapter: Internet friend: Forever Endeavor - Tania Rascia

Lazing Around

It didn't take long for Alice to adjust to life at Hogwarts. There had been times when she thought she'd have trouble, having been home schooled her entire life, but her parents had always kept to a schedule, so Alice found no trouble making it to classes on time and only a little trouble finding time to do her homework.

Her easiest class by far was History of Magic. She even sent a request home for her parents to send her favorite history books up to school. She delighted in pouring over her books, a few nice books she'd found in the library, and the assigned text for the class whenever writing papers for Professor Binns. It was a struggle at times to stay awake in his class, especially since she knew so much of the material already, but every time that the monotone ghost spoke a new name or date that she wasn't familiar with, she'd quickly jot it down, committing it to memory.

Two weeks into school, the first years received their first History of Magic paper back, graded. Most of them took back their papers with a groan, but Alice smiled at the top of her paper, which pronounced top marks, before hiding it in her bag. She had no intention of drawing attention to herself and she was not the type to brag. No one paid attention to Alice as she hid her paper away though, many of them doing the same thing with their own papers.

Unfortunately, she wasn't doing as well in any of her other classes. Astronomy was easy enough, the first year being mostly about identifying and telling the difference between stars, planets, asteroids, and comets, but most students agreed that it was nearly as hard to stay awake in astronomy as it was in History of Magic.

Flying remained, for Alice, a pain and a sore. After the first few lessons, Madam Hooch split the class up into four groups: natural flyers, fast but uncontrolled, steady but wary, and unnatural flyers. Alice found herself in the "fast but uncontrolled" group. She had no problem with taking off and could even turn in the right direction, but the angles of her turns were never precise and her speed was never consistent. Landings weren't something Alice thought of much either, the thought being too painful. She had only landed without crashing twice. One of those times, she was certain that her broom just stopped working as she hovered a foot off the ground, so she was able to jump down. The other time was a complete fluke, and even though she landed nicely, she still flinched, waiting for the ground to come up and smack her.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was always exciting, but it was difficult as well. Professor Potter took no time in training the first years in jinxes and their counterjinxes so that they could protect themselves from the older students in the school. No matter how hard she worked though, Alice found that she couldn't do them right. And jinxes weren't exactly things you could practice easily outside of class. The counterjinxes were especially bothersome for her. Half the time nothing would happen and the other half she'd swear that she accidentally made the original jinx worse on whoever she was working on. Hoping that she'd eventually find a friend to practice on, she continued to muddle through the class.

Herbology was hard, but not as hard as it could have been. Both she and Josef were no good at the subject, but they had been lucky to find themselves at the same station as Joseph on the first day. Alice couldn't be too sure yet, but she'd bet that Joseph was on his way to becoming the top of the class in herbology. Every assignment which Professor Sprout gave to the class, Joseph was able to do. Alice did her best to help by looking up facts in this or that book, but it was Joseph who seemed able to take those facts and put them into practice. While Alice was certain that she'd never want a true wizard garden, so was also fairly sure that she wasn't doomed to fail herbology.

If herbology was hard, potions was even harder. Snape loathed the Hufflepuffs, and that was an understatement by far. After his shouting match with Ava on the first day, he didn't confront her again, but the rest of the Hufflepuffs seemed fair game with him. He had gone as far as to pick out his favorite student to terrorize from each table. Keri, at the table in front of Alice's, Josef at the table behind her, and Alice herself. While Alice loved her good luck of being Joseph's partner in herbology, she cursed her luck at picking the table with Ava and Steven in potions. Ava's potions always looked the way that the end description said they should look, and Steven's weren't far off either. Alice's potions, on the other hand, always had some major flaw, whether it be that the color was off, or the texture, or the smell, or thetransparency. It didn't help matters that Steven was constantly cutting up his ingredients to what looked like exact measurements to Alice and then complaining about how he was messing up. But even a confuzzled person would have seen that Alice's work was always off.

Then there was Charms. The classes themselves were quite enjoyable. Even a few weeks into the term, Alice still couldn't get over how adorable Professor Flitwick was. She found herself smiling as she listened to him lecture with his squeaky voice as he stood atop a pile of books. The spells themselves weren't so enjoyable though. Alice was having the same troubles with her Charms spells as she was with her jinxes and counterjinxes in Defense Against the Dark Arts. No matter how perfectly she performed the swish and flick or pronounced "_Wingardium leviosa_," she could not make the feather before her rise into the air. It was almost as if someone had secured her feather to the tabletop with a permanent sticking charm, but she knew that couldn't be true (she had even checked one day by picking it up and setting it down again). The only thing which cheered Alice up was the fact that she could practice Charms spells outside of the classroom, and she kept telling herself that she'd have to get it sooner or later.

Alice still didn't know what to make of transfiguration. Professor McGonagall was strict and the class had the reputation of being one of the most difficult taught at Hogwarts, but if Alice wasn't ahead in the class, she surely wasn't behind either. The wand movements were simpler than those required in Charms, and the incantations weren't any harder than for any other spells, but the process was much more complicated. At first, the notes had been frightening to Alice, but with a little time studying the text book and listening intently to Professor McGonagall, Alice found that the spells "made sense." Alice still wasn't sure why or how a feather could be made to rise into the air, but she understood the process behind how a match could be transfigured into a needle. She hadn't produced the effect yet (neither had over half the rest of the class), but she was confident that she would. She was determined that transfiguration would not be on her "bad classes" list.

* * *

One Friday evening, Alice sat in the common room, ruffling through the pages of her potions book, trying to figure out which step she had messed up to make her latest potion bubble over when it should have actually been evaporating. Snape had stood over her shoulder, sneering at her work as the potion poured onto the table and began soaking into her notes. The notes, though not ruined, still smelled like a mixture of mud and pond water to Alice, but she couldn't do anything about that. Snape's words still rang in her head: _three feet on why your potion was such a failure, Bint, by next class_. 

"What are you working on?" asked a voice over her head. Alice looked up from her work, her quill still poised over her parchment, the ink long dry on its tip. A smiling, freckled face met her eye.

"Hi Elizabeth," said Alice, glad that she was so good at remembering names. She had rarely spoken with this girl since they were in different years, but the second year seemed nice enough. "I'm doing potions."

"Ooo!" said Elizabeth, sitting down next to her. "That's my best subject!" She peered down at Alice's work. Alice looked herself and felt the need to cover it up in shame, but she refrained from doing so. It was titled "What went wrong with my forgetfulness potion" and all she had written so far was what should have happened and what actually had happened with her potion. She had no idea how to finish out the paper though, since she had no idea what ingredient had caused her potion to bubble over or what step she had messed up on. Pulling her eyes away from her paper, she stared into Elizabeth's face. The girl's brown hair was pulled up and out of the way, but it still hung over her shoulder as she leaned over Alice's paper. She nodded as she finished reading what Alice had written. "I know what you did," she pronounced.

Alice felt her heart leap in her chest. "Really? You really know?"

Elizabeth nodded again and pulled Alice's book toward herself. She flipped to the first page of instructions and pointed toward the ingredient list. Alice followed her finger and felt her stomach twist into a knot. _One jobberknoll feather (cut off the tip and any portion which has a 'speckle' on it, leaving only the parts which are blue)._

"Oh no," Alice said softly. "I forgot all about the tip. I cut off all the speckles and forgot about the tip."

Elizabeth patted Alice comfortingly on the back. "Don't let it get you down. It happens to the best of us. Just make sure, in future, to read all of the directions _thoroughly_. Sometimes they can be extremely detailed." Alice nodded mutely.

"Oi! Elizabeth! Are you coming?" called a girl from beside the portrait hole. "Or are you going to laze around all day?" She grinned widely as she said this and the boy at her side began laughing.

"Those are my friends, Tania and Sean," whispered Elizabeth to Alice, then, to Tania, she called, "I thought we were going outside to 'laze around' anyway."

"Exactly," pronounced Tania. "And _your_ lazing is putting all of _our_ lazing on hold. Do you want to bring your new friend along?" Tania's dark brown eyes turned expectantly toward Alice.

"Yeah, do you want to come?" asked Elizabeth, already starting to straighten up Alice's notes. "We were going to pick a spot next to the lake to lie down and talk. You're welcome to join us."

"But, um," Alice waved her hand at her unfinished paper.

"Oh, come on!" said Sean, walking up to the table. "Work can wait. It's Friday!"

Alice grinned and, taking her notes and book from Elizabeth, shoved them into her bag. "Just let me take this up to my room," she said hurriedly, running up the stairs.

Moments later, she burst into the room, successfully colliding with Keri. The taller girl began flailing her arms around as she stumbled backwards into her bed, but Alice didn't let her fall. She grabbed one of the girl's arms, steadying her. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have done that! I shouldn't have come in so fast, but I'm in a hurry."

Keri straightened her robes and checked her hair before replying. "It's ok. No harm done." Alice ran to the other end of the room, discarding her bag on her bed, trying to ignore the fact that Bella and Keri were staring at her. "Why are you in such a hurry?" asked Keri curiously.

Alice paused on her way back out the door, huffing from her short run. "Well, this second year, no, these three second years, at least, I think they're all second years, but they're all friends," Alice stopped speaking and covered her face with her hands. "I'm not making any sense," she said through her fingers. Taking her hands away from her face, she sighed deeply and started again. "These three people asked me to come down to the lake with them. And I said yes, so they're waiting down in the common room for me."

"That sounds like it might be fun," said Bella, pushing her notes to the side and getting off her own bed. "Do you think they'd mind if I came along as well?"

"No, I don't think they'd mind," said Alice. "They seemed really nice."

"Good, because I wasn't getting anywhere with this," said Bella, motioning toward her homework. "I think it'd do me more good to wait till tomorrow."

For an awkward moment, no one spoke or moved, but then Alice took a step toward the door and Bella began to follow her. As she reached the door though, Bella turned back around. "Why don't you come too, Keri? You've been in here way too long. The fresh air will be nice."

"Okay," said Keri quickly, and she took no time in following the other girls, closing the dormitory door behind her.

So, it was three Hufflepuff first years that descended the staircase into the common room. Tania began to laugh as soon as she recognized Alice among them. "Brought the whole year, have you?" she asked. Alice blushed. "I'm only kidding," said Tania playfully, and pushing the portrait hole open, she held it for the other five as they exited. Closing it behind her, Tania bid the Nightwatch farewell. "See you later Mr. Cripps! Give Spot a pat for me!" Elizabeth and Sean giggled as the Nightwatch waved them on their way and then knelt down to pat his dog on the head.

The Huffles occupied their walk down to the lake with introductions. Elizabeth lost no time in pointing out that Sean was the same age as the first years, despite the fact that he was a second year. After that, he had no choice but to explain himself.

"I started Hogwarts early," he said. "I got my acceptance letter when I was ten and my parents came up to the school to ask about it. They said that I could start early. I really wasn't expecting it at all. And now my twin sister is here, but she's a first year. She got her acceptance letter at the normal time."

"Ooo, who's your sister?" asked Alice.

"She's not in Hufflepuff," said Sean. "Her name's Alanna. She's a Gryffindor."

"That's weird, that you started at different times," said Bella. "I noticed some twins being sorted into Slythering this year, but they were first years, not a first year and a second year."

"Yeah," said Sean. "Weird." He shifted uncomfortably, obviously not liking all the attention.

"We're here," announced Tania, pointing at the lake just in case the others had forgotten where they were heading.

"Over this way," beckoned Elizabeth, moving toward a tree off to the side. The other five followed her and they all made themselves comfortable under the shade, some of them gazing out over the lake and the others staring back at Hogwarts and the sky behind, which had began to change colors with the coming sunset.

"I love Hogwarts," breathed Keri.

"Hear hear," said Sean, raising his right hand as if in a toast.

"If we only didn't have homework," remarked Bella. "The magic is fine, but all those papers we have to write," she shook her head.

"I heard that Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes just came out with a product that will create an original paper." said Tania thoughtfully. "It's special parchment and ink. Then you just use the correct quill depending on the grade you want. Like, you can use a quill that is the grade you normally get and then upgrade to a better quill over time so that it doesn't look too suspicious for your writing to improve drastically overnight."

"But we're not allowed to have anything from that shop at Hogwarts," said Alice uncertainly.

"Filch can't catch everything," said Elizabeth, "and plenty of people have things from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Sean, weren't you saying that your sister had a pygmy puff?"

Sean responded with a nod as he took out his wand. Keri leaned forward excitedly. "Are you going to do magic?" she asked. "I've been getting really good at the levitating spell. I can make objects fly on every attempt now."

Sean grinned. "Well, levitating isn't exactly hard. That's why it's taught to first years." He pointed his wand at a stick near the water's edge. "_Wingardium leviosa!_" The stick rose straight into the air at an alarming speed like an arrow shot from a bow. Sean jerked his wand away and the stick fell, splashing into the lake, sending ripples in all directions. Alice watched the entire show with a blush on her face, grateful for the bad lighting. _There has to be something wrong with me_, she thought, not for the first time. _Why can't I do that spell?_

"Personally, I can't wait to learn the summoning spell," said Bella. "I saw some fifth years doing it the other day. They kept fighting over a pillow, snatching it out of the air, back and forth. One of their friends was cheering them on to be the one to actually summon the pillow," a big grin crossed Bella's face, "and then one of them did the banishing spell so that the pillow hit the other guy in the face. It was funny!"

"Yeah, I saw that too," said Elizabeth, then, lifting her wand, she spoke "_Lumos_." Her wand began to glow like a lighted candle.

In the light of Elizabeth's wand, Bella gazed up at the school. "Hogwarts sure looks different at this time, doesn't it?" she asked.

"I think it's pretty," said Alice. "But I guess we'll have to get back inside soon. The sun's getting low."

"We won't be missed," announced Bella, standing up. She lifted her own wand and, copying Elizabeth, spoke "_Lumos!_" A faint light could be detected on the tip of her wand before it faded. Speaking the spell once more, she produced an acceptable light though. "I heard there was a tree that hits people to the north of Hogwarts."

"You mean the whomping willow," said Tania. "You don't want to get too close to it, trust me."

"Point me," said Keri.

"What was that?" asked Sean, looking over at the tall girl who had just stood up beside Bella, her wand lying flat on her palm.

"That way's north," proclaimed Keri, pointing in the direction which her wand faced.

"Wait," said Elizabeth, scrambling to her feet. "Was that a spell you just did? When you said 'point me?'"

"Yes," said Keri, affronted. "You should know it too. It's not hard at all."

"What class did you learn it in?" asked Tania, also showing interest.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," answered Alice from where she still sat, her back against the tree.

"Really?" asked Tania. "That stinks! We didn't learn much of anything from Professor Springbridge last year. I don't think she knew what she was doing. But now Professor Potter is giving us second year material. We've practically missed out on all the first year stuff!"

"That _would_ stink," said Bella, "but why don't we talk about it as we walk that way?" she pointed northward.

"Hehe, you really want to visit the whomping willow, don't you?" asked Tania, glancing at the sun. "I guess we could, but we should be quick." With that, Tania sprang up and began marching away from the lake, not bothering to make sure that the other Hufflepuffs were following her. Alice got up off the ground as Sean did, but she really didn't want to visit the whomping willow. This would surely land them all in detention. As they walked along, Elizabeth fell in step beside her.

"Don't worry," she said. "At least we're not in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. They're the ones who usually get caught after hours, since they have to go up all those flights of stairs. All we have to do is run across the entrance hall and then down our staircase without being seen. Trust me, Filch is rarely down there. Sometimes you'll run into Mrs. Norris, probably because that's where the kitchens are located, but by the time she finds Filch, it's no problem to make your way safely to the common room."

"Alright," said Alice nervously.

"Hey, if I help you with potions, will you teach me what Potter's teaching your class?" asked Elizabeth suddenly.

Alice didn't know what to say at first. How did you say "I can't do any of the spells I'm learning in Defense Against the Dark Arts" without sounding pathetic? But as she glanced into Elizabeth's eager face, she knew she couldn't say that. "Sure," she finally said with a strained grin.

"Yay!" said Elizabeth, throwing an arm around Alice's shoulder.

Alice barely took in the whomping willow as they came up to it. She didn't think much of sneaking back into the common room later either. Her mind was grappling with her unfinished homework and her promise to teach what she was learning in Defense Against the Dark Arts to Elizabeth. _That's it_, she thought, _I have to study more. I can't goof off like I did today. I have to master those jinxes and counterjinxes. I'll ask someone to partner up with me tomorrow. I don't know who, but I'll just have to find someone to practice those spells on._


	8. Dueling Club

Characters introduced in this chapter: Real life friend: Tom - Michael Onam; Internet friend: ArjunKumar - Arjun Kumar

Dueling Club

Alice walked down into the common room. She had woken up a bit early for a Saturday, but she intended to grab one of the small tables in the common room to get some work done on her potions essay. As she entered the room though, loaded down with her bag, she found quite a large crowd of excited students already in the room, most of them still in their pajamas, looking as if they'd run down into the common room at the urging of a roommate without even brushing their hair first. Most of them were pushing their way toward the message board beside the door, trying to get a look at one of the notices on it. Alice felt as if the sound and energy of the room had pushed her into the wall for a moment, but she recovered, dumped her bag beside one of the small tables in the room, and inched toward the message board. Standing on the edge of the crowd, she heard enough to get the gist of what was going on, and she found herself running back up to her room to inform the other girls in her year.

Barging through the door, she found that Daphne and Ava were awake and at their vanities, but it looked like Bella and Keri were still sound asleep. At least, it looked like that at first. Bella's head came up from her pillow as the door opened, she saw Alice standing huffing in the doorway, and she rested on an elbow. "What is it this time Alice? Is it three fifth years?"

It could have been sarcastic teasing, but it wasn't. Somehow, Alice knew that Bella was simply curious. "No," said Alice. "It's much better!"

Ava looked over too, attracted by the excitement in Alice's voice. "Is something going on?"

A big smile covered Alice's face as she tried to hit down her enthusiasm before she spoke, remembering how she fumbled her words the day before. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Then, the smile reclaiming her face, she just spat it out. "There's going to be a Dueling Club, run by Professor Potter!"

At first, there was dead silence in the room, but as Alice opened her eyes, the room erupted. Ava sprinted across the bedroom and nearly knocked Alice over in an excited hug. All of the banter among the other girls quickly woke Keri up, who asked what all the noise was about and then started adding her own voice to the happy laughter and exclamations.

"Where'd you find this out?" she asked.

"It's on the notice board down in the common room. The first meeting is tonight I think."

"Let's go take a look," said Ava, and then she took hold of Alice's hand and charged through the door. Alice heard the other girls following after them. When they erupted into the common room, it was even more crowded than before.

"Well there are the first years," Alice heard a voice say from the table where she had left her bag. Glancing over, Alice saw Elizabeth and Tania sitting there. It had been Tania who had spoken. The older girl's brown eyes were sparkling. "You guys know what all the excitement's about, right?"

"Sort of," said Keri, skipping up to the table. Her eyes darted over toward the notice board and all the children crowding in front of it before continuing. "A Dueling Club. That's about all we know. Is the first meeting tonight?"

"Yes," said Elizabeth. "First Saturday of October. That's today. Three o'clock in the Great Hall. Anyone who doesn't have detention can go."

"I pity whoever has detention then," said Daphne, sitting down at the table.

"That would be me" said a small voice from one of the chairs before the fireplace.

"Oh no," said Ava, rounding the chair to look at its occupant. "I'm so sorry Steven! Which class?"

"Transfiguration," he mumbled.

"Oh, is that why she held you after?" asked Bella.

Steven nodded. "I just thought it was so pointless, you know, turning matches into needles. I mean, when are we ever really going to use that? So, she gave me a detention. I didn't realize till this morning what she meant by 'and you'll be missing out on more than just a Saturday afternoon, so maybe that will teach you that you don't know everything and some things have meanings that you can't see yet.'"

"But you're the only one in our class who's learned the jelly-legs jinx yet," said Joseph, coming up to the group. "You would have been excellent at dueling, I'm sure!"

"Thanks," said Steven softly, looking at his hands.

"Chin up," said Elizabeth. "It's not the end of the world! Just don't get detention next time. They might hold meetings every Saturday. You could join us all then."

Steven just nodded and went back upstairs to his dorm. Joseph looked at the girls for a moment before hurrying after him.

The feeling, at least among these friends, had been soured. "It'd be great if we could break him out of detention," said Tania suddenly. "But I bet we'd all wind up with him," she laughed at herself.

"Yeah, probably," said Ava. She sat down in the chair Steven had just vacated. "But this might even be good for us. He really is good at those jinxes."

"Tell me about it," said Daphne, rubbing the back of her neck. "His full body bind didn't stick, but it sure knocked me off my feet for awhile. I really hate that jinx! It's not fun feeling like you're paralyzed."

"Yeah, I bet only someone like Merwyn the Malicious or Wendelin the Weird would enjoy the jinx at all," said Alice.

Silence met her statement. Everyone turned to stare at her. Finally Ava said, "I have a chocolate frog card with Wendelin the Weird on it. I think she was being burned at the stake in the picture. But … I never would have thought to mention her now."

Alice dipped her head down in embarrassment, letting her hair fall to cover her face. "I just like History of Magic," she mumbled.

* * *

After lunch that day, no one could get any work done. Everyone just seemed to be staring at the clock, waiting for three o'clock to arrive. As Alice sat in the common room surrounded by her friends, she was thinking her own thoughts. Her potions essay was still incomplete and she had other work to do that she had yet to begin, most of it due either Monday or Tuesday.

Alice's thoughts and worries were interrupted by a crescendo in the sound around her as people began rising and piling out of the portrait hole. It was 2:30. Alice stretched and found her right hand ensnared by Ava. She let Ava drag her over to the corner of the common room where Steven sat, looking glum. Joseph meandered after them.

The three of them stood before Steven for awhile before Joseph spoke up. "I hate awkward silences," he pronounced. "Steven, you know I'll tell you everything that happens, tonight when I see you."

"Yeah, I know," he said.

"Are you just going to sit here all alone while everyone else leaves?" asked Ava, sounding concerned.

Steven gave her an exasperated look. "There's no reason for me to show up early to detention. It makes sense for all of you to want to show up early to the Dueling Club though. Don't let me hold you up."

Ava frowned, but then she began to turn, dragging Alice along with her again.

"I'm sorry," spat out Alice.

Steven gave her a puzzled look. "It's not your fault."

"I know," said Alice, blushing. "But, I'm still sorry. I'm sorry for you."

"Well, thanks, I guess," said Steven.

The other three left, some of the last Hufflepuffs to exit the common room, on their way to the Great Hall.

* * *

Walking through the double doors of the Hall, they found that it was set up differently than they'd ever seen it before. The four house tables were no where to be seen, and what looked like the entire school was packed into the room, most of them congregating on thefar side of the room where the Gryffindor table usually stood. The Hufflepuffs moved forward to join the masses. It appeared that the students were pushing toward a golden platform or stage of some sort that had been erected near the wall. Professor Potter stood atop it, directing the students to not get too close to the stage. They tried to obey him by moving backwards, but there were too many students at the back of the crowd who continued to surge forward.

"No, no," Alice heard Professor Potter shout. "I don't want you too close to the stage! Please, the students in the back, move back a bit more. At three o'clock there will be a mock duel up on this stage and I don't need any students getting hurt or in the way."

Most of the students started to do as Professor Potter bid, but a few continued to do what they pleased. Alice noticed green collars on the uniforms of many of these students. All of a sudden, a new voice was yelling above the noise of the students.

"Get back from the stage, everyone!" Professor McGonagall marched forward, moving through the students to join Potter up on the stage. She glared down at the students and most of those who had arrived early enough to be standing right up beside the stage found themselves falling over the people behind them in their effort to get away. A new chaos was created as about a fifth of the students found themselves on the floor, but it quieted down as McGonagall yelled at them all once more, and, before long, the students were all in order. Nodding at the room, McGonagall jumped off the stage, quite nimbly for a woman of her age, and stormed back out of the room. _She has to get to her office so that she can give Steven detention_, thought Alice.

"May I have your attention?" said Professor Potter. He seemed unphased by the fact that he'd needed McGonagall's help to take control of the room. He checked his watch. "It's not three o'clock yet, but I'm sure everyone's here who had planned on coming. We can start early." Potter ruffled his hair with one hand so that it stood out even messier than before. That's when Alice noticed that he wasn't wearing his cloak. He seemed to have it on whenever outside the classroom, but not here. _Well I guess this is a classroom of sorts too_, Alice reasoned before concentrating again on what Professor Potter was saying.

"As you all know, sometimes wizards quarrel. Whether it be a question of honor or pride or malice, wizards find reasons to duel each other. I was not taught how to duel when I was in school," Potter paused a second, a smile crossing his face as if at a joke that only he knew, "but I was still presented with situations in which I was forced to duel." Many students began to inch forward in anticipation. None of them were about to walk right up to the stage so soon after being reprimanded by Professor McGonagall, but they couldn't help themselves, as they sensed that they were going to hear about some of the duels of the famous Harry Potter, maybe even the episode which had finally ended the terror of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the story which the Ministry of Magic had kept a secret all of these years. "While I hope that none of you will be put into a situation, in the future, in which you must duel, and duel well, or die, I want all of you to be ready, none the less. So, I asked Dumbledore for permission, and he granted it, that I might start this Dueling Club.

"Now, before you all get the wrong idea about what a duel is, I've decided that the first meeting of the club will start with a mock duel between myself," Potter pointed toward the back of the crowd, "and Professor Flitwick." Excited murmuring met this pronouncement, and many heads turned to see Flitwick standing near the doors. He walked smartly forward, a broad smile on his tiny face. The crowd parted to let him through.

"He doesn't stand a chance!" Alice heard someone near her whisper.

Professor Potter's voice rose above the chattering of the students once more. "Professor Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was younger, and he has kindly agreed to help me with this club." Potter shot down a hand to help Flitwick up onto the stage. The short man was blushing a deep red when he came into view of the students and he quickly straightened his robes before fishing out his wand.

"Now, in an official duel," continued Professor Potter, "you always start many paces apart and the duel begins with a bow. All duels within this club will begin this way." Professor Flitwick began pacing away from where Potter stood. Professor Potter registered the movement in his peripheral vision and quickly moved into position as well. The two men turned to face each other at the exact same moment. "After the bow," said Potter loudly, "we will raise our wands into the ready position. If there is a witness, which there always should be in an official duel, the witness should count to three. On three, both wizards may cast their first spell.

"Miss Kumar, you may count off for us." Both professors bowed deeply to each other, their heads up as they retained eye contact, and a tall, black haired girl with the red collar of a Gryffindor and a badge with an "HG" on it stepped forward confidently. Two wands rose to point at each other, across the stage, and the girl's strong voice sang out.

"One … two …" Alice took a deep breath, "three!"

Professor Flitwick began saying a spell which Alice had never heard in her life, but his spell was cut off by his own yell as he went soaring into the air to dangle upside down over the stage. Potter hadn't said a thing to put Flitwick into such an awkward position, though Alice had barely detected an upward jab of his wand.

Quickly, Flitwick aimed his wand upward at his feet and yelled "_Finite Incantatem!_" Before he had even begun to fall, he aimed his wand at the stage and performed a cushioning spell.

"_Stupefy!_" said Potter, walking forward as he cast his next spell. A red dart of light shot across the room, but it missed Flitwick as he bounced upon the temporary cushion he had created. In the next second, he had landed on his feet.

"_Silencio_," he cried at the same moment that Potter yelled "_Impedimen-,_" thus cutting off the end of Professor Potter's spell. Still, Potter's spell appeared to work, and as Flitwick attempted to take a step forward, his movements were excruciatingly slow.

Potter waved his wand silently at the short man, emitting a red puff of smoke from the end of it, but nothing else appeared to happen. He tried again and ended up with the same puff of smoke. Flitwick was going through the motions of a new spell, but there would be no surprise attack coming from him since his wand movements were all so slow. Still, he finished the downward swish of his wand and called out "_Locomotor Mortis_." Potter waved his wand before his body, obviously trying again to cast a silent spell. This time it worked, and Flitwick's own spell rebounded to come back at him. He couldn't move fast enough to deflect it, and his legs snapped together, causing him to fall over.

Potter pointed his wand at his own throat. He mouthed something a few times, but only the end of whatever he had been saying was heard by the crowd as the syllable "-_us_" was magnified much louder than a human voice could possibly speak. Many children screamed and pressed their hands to their ears to block out the sound. "_Quietus_," said Potter in the same loud voice. With his voice back, Potter began marching toward Professor Flitwick who was still lying on his back.

The Impediment Curse must have worn off, for Flitwick raised his wand arm quickly and, aiming at Professor Potter, said "_Expelliarmus!_" Potter's wand flew right out of his hand and Flitwick caught it in his free hand. In the next moment, Flitwick had pointed his own wand at his feet and said "_Finite Incantatem!_" He stood and jabbed his wand at Potter, who had surged forward after being disarmed, obviously hoping to somehow get his wand back. Potter's arms were suddenly pressed to his body and he came to a stop.

"Ok Professor," he said. "You win. Now, if you'll please untie me and give me back my wand, we may pair up the students."

The Great Hall exploded in an avalanche of sound as the students screamed their amazement at the turn of events. Harry Potter had _lost_! Professor Flitwick had _won_! "They must have planned it that way," Alice heard many people saying. "There's no way that Flitwick could beat _the_ Harry Potter!" "It was a _mock_ duel, so they must have practiced it this way; it has to have been a skit!"

Professor Potter's wand blazed forth with a terribly bright light, quieting down most of the students and gaining all of their attention. "Please sort yourselves by year," he said. "Sixth and seventh years on this side," he pointed toward the side of the Hall where the teachers sat, "all the way to first years on this side," he moved his hand to point at the back wall of the Hall. Alice began making her way toward that wall as the room became a mess of arms and legs, all the students trying to shove their way toward the rest of their year. At one point, another student brushed by her so forcefully as to cut her cheek with the tip of their wand, but there was too much chaos to ask for an apology, and she wasn't even sure who had cut her. As the room began to settle again though, Alice found herself standing between Daphne and Michael, both fellow Hufflepuff first years.

"What happened to your face?" asked Michael, pointing at her new cut.

"Someone cut me with their wand," said Alice, pulling a kerchief from her pocket and pressing it against the cut to clean up the blood. "I don't think they meant to," she said hurriedly as the look on Michael's face turned from concern to shock, and possibly anger.

Michael took a look at the crowded room before saying, "Yeah, you're probably right."

"I wish we could hear what they're saying," said Daphne.

"What who are saying?" asked Michael.

"Potter and Flitwick," she responded.

Sure enough, the two professors were holding a whispered conversation up on the stage, but they didn't speak long. The two of them hopped down from the stage and began walking toward opposite sides of the room. Alice was excited to see that Professor Potter was striding toward their end of the Hall.

"Alright," said Professor Potter, stopping alongside the third years. "Today we'll be pairing everyone up so that we can start practicing the disarming spell. That would be the last spell which Filius used against me: expelliarmus. The spell whisks your opponent's wand out of their hand, sending the wand soaring toward yourself. It's an easier spell than the summoning spell to execute, so don't worry if you've never tried it before. Professor Flitwick," Potter pointed toward the front of the Hall, "will be testing the N.E.W.T. students one at a time to make sure they can perform the spell. Don't pay attention to any other incantations that you may hear from that end of the Hall today. I promise you you'll get there eventually. First years and third years, please sit down behind me under the windows here. I'll pair up all the second and fourth years first. Fifth years, please stand to the side. Professor Flitwick or myself will test each of you to determine whether you should practice this spell more or move onto something else."

Alice moved off with the other first years and sat down to watch. Many of the students around her were expressing their disappointment at having to wait even longer, but Alice didn't mind. She was starting to wonder why she was even here; she could feel a knot forming in her stomach. _I'm going to make a fool of myself_, she thought. _I'm going to say the spell, but nothing's going to happen._

Professor Potter moved quickly among the remaining students, spacing them out and pairing them up. It appeared that he had already decided which students to pair, since he seemed to look specifically for one other student whenever he reached someone, and he often called to a student on the other side of the Hall from himself when pairing them up.

"No one's being paired up with someone of the same house," said the girl at Alice's side. Alice turned to look and saw that the girl was Alyson, the only other person she'd ever seen take more than half a page of notes in History of Magic.

"Really?" asked Alice. She skimmed the students who were already paired up.

"Yeah," said Alyson. Sure enough, she was right. Alice could see Tania standing opposite a Ravenclaw. Sean was also going to duel with a Ravenclaw, and way over near the door, Alice could barely see Elizabeth standing with a Slytherin.

"_Expelliarmus!_" came a voice from the front of the Hall. The students sitting along the wall turned to look. The sixth and seventh years had been organized into two lines by Professor Flitwick, and the short professor was walking along the line, testing each student in turn to see if they could disarm the student standing opposite them.

"We're ready," said Professor Potter. All of the second and fourth years were standing in pairs, spaced out fairly evenly throughout the room. "I told each of you whether you are a one or two. Ones should go first, on my count." He stood back from the students. "Get ready! Alright, ones!"

"_Expelliarmus!_" yelled about forty voices.

"If you now have your opponent's wand," shouted Potter, "then hand it back. Continue practicing until I tell you to stop. Only ones may practice the spell!" Potter walked among the students for a while before moving over to the fifth years. He organized them into lines similar to those of the sixth and seventh years and tested a few of them before yelling at the second and fourth years to switch over for the twos to get some practice. By the time he had tested all of the fifth years, the ones and twos had hadquite a fewchances to disarm their opponents. Fifteen of the fifth years were sent over to Flitwick to study more advanced spells and the rest were paired up to get more practice with the disarming spell.

"That's enough for the second and fourth years," Potter announced. "Please sit down along the back wall and leave space for the first and third years." The students around Alice sprang up with a cheer and began running out into the center of the Hall. Alice wasn't nearly so energetic about it, but she didn't let herself get left behind. Professor Potter took no time to start pairing up the first years.

Potter took hold of two Gryffindor boys. "Onam, Newcomb!" he called. Michael and Blaine ran up beside him. "Newcomb, you'll duel Kumar here." Blaine complied, and Michael stood before the other boy. Next, Potter lined up two Gryffindor girls, one with golden blond hair and the other auburn. "With Bones, I'll have Grey," the tall Hufflepuff girl walked forward to stand before the girl with auburn hair. "And with Thornton," continued Potter, "Stouffer." He looked around. "Where's Stouffer?"

"Sir," said Ava, tugging on Potter's robe to get his attention. "He had detention."

"Oh," said Potter. "Then Orwell instead." The pretty muggle-born Ravenclaw walked forward to stand in front of Miss Thornton.

Alice could barely keep up with the orderings until she heard her own name called. "Bint and Dwaitwist," he called. She pushed her way though the crowd to the professor. Dominic Dwaitwist beat her there, a blue-eyed Ravenclaw who she didn't know very well. At first, Alice thought she was going to duel him, but Potter positioned her in front of another boy. Two Slytherin boys, last name of Falcon, would be Alice and Dominic's partners. As Professor Potter moved off, Alice held out her hand to her partner.

"My name's Alice Bint," she said. The boy looked at her hand as if it was a turd, but his brother had better manners.

"I'm John," said the boy, introducing himself to Dominic. "And this is Jake," he said to Alice, pointing at his brother. He ran his hand through his blond hair. "We're twins," he said, quite unnecessarily, Alice thought. After that, the foursome stood in silence until Professor Potter told them they could start. "We're ones," said John quickly, motioning toward himself and his brother.

Alice braced herself as Jake pointed his wand at her. "_Expelliarmus!_" he yelled. Nothing happened. An annoyed look crossed his face and he yelled the spell again. Alice's wand hadn't even rattled in her own hand. Jake, apparently, was as good at spell casting as she was herself. After a few tries, John had already disarmed Dominic, and he was handing the boy back his wand as Potter yelled for everyone to switch.

Alice took a deep breath, pointed her wand at Jake, and yelled the disarming spell. A grin crossed his face as absolutely nothing happened. All of her efforts, and all of his, for the rest of the practice, yielded no effect. Professor Potter had truly paired them well. They were all standing opposite someone of their own ability. In Alice's case, her opponent performed just as horribly as she did. As she left the Hall a little later, she was happy that she wasn't the only person who stank at Defense Against the Dark Arts.


	9. Studying Theory

Characters introduced in this chapter: Internet friends: Phil - Katleigh Hadrin, Susie Blue - Susie Wambly

Studying Theory

"Alice, wake up!"

Alice opened her eyes to see Ava leaning on the edge of her bed.

"What?" asked Alice sleepily, starting to sit up.

Ava started laughing. "You missed breakfast. Professor Sprout was looking for you. I told her I could pass this onto you." Alice felt a roll of parchment pushed into her hand. Rubbing her eyes, Alice sat up all the way and tried to unroll the parchment, but it had been magically sealed so that it couldn't be opened without a wand. She had seen her parents open notes like this one before. Forcing herself not to gulp, Alice fetched her wand, hesitated for a second, and then tapped the parchment.

As the parchment unrolled itself, Alice let her breath out in a rush. She had seriously been afraid it wouldn't open, since so many of her spells didn't work and she had never done this one before. A giggle from the next bed attracted her eye. Ava and Daphne were both sitting on Daphne's bed, watching her. Alice immediately ran her fingers through her hair, only too aware that she had just woken up.

"What?" she asked again.

"You just looked so uptight about opening the note," said Ava, smiling. She leaned forward. "What's it say?"

Alice grabbed up the note and held it so that the other girls couldn't see. She was grateful for sleeping in the last bed in the room now because she only had one direction which prying eyes could come from. Her eyes skimmed the note quickly.

_Miss Alice Bint,_

_Please come by my office on the side of Greenhouse 7 this evening at seven o'clock. I have an important matter to discuss with you._

_Professor Sprout_

Alice peered over the top of the note at the two girls before her. "She wants to see me in her office later."

"What'd you do?" asked Daphne.

"Nothing!" said Alice.

"Sure you've done nothing," said Ava with a smile. She got up and pat Alice on the shoulder. "Just tell us about it tonight."

Alice nodded and read her note again.

* * *

At 6:45, Alice walked out of the front doors of Hogwarts. _A Sunday wasted_, she thought as she descended the front stairs into the lawn. _I just couldn't stop thinking about this meeting. I'm not nearly done with all my homework. At least I finished my potions essay._ Alice began walking along the greenhouses, counting them. _One, two. I wonder why she wanted to see me. Three. Why only me? Four, five. I've never been by these greenhouses before. Six._ Alice stopped and tried to see into the greenhouse. She would have sworn that something had just moved inside, but it was too dark outside and the windows of the greenhouse were slightly fogged up. Alice began walking along again, toward the last of all the greenhouses. Hesitantly, she walked up to its main door and tried to open it. The door was locked. Alice knew the unlocking spell, alohomora, but she'd never tried it before and she doubted that she should try it on this door.

Alice took her note out and held it up, trying to read the writing on it in the faint light. She couldn't really see the words, but she didn't need to. She had memorized what it said by now. "_… side of Greenhouse 7…_" Alice began walking between greenhouse six and seven. Sure enough, there was a side door in greenhouse seven. A plaque on the door read "Professor Pomona Sprout."

"Makes sense," said Alice under her breath, trying to feign away nervousness, "she wouldn't put her office _in_ greenhouse seven. Only N.E.W.T. students are allowed in there." Alice knocked on the door.

A few seconds later, the door burst open, though Alice hadn't heard any sounds to indicate that someone was making their way to the door. "Good evening, Bint!" said Professor Sprout cheerily. "Come in, come in!" Alice took a step into the office; Sprout shut the door after her. The floor of the office, much like that of the greenhouses, was nothing more than packed dirt, but it felt as solid as wood or stone under Alice's feet. All four walls of the office except for the door leading outside and another leading into the greenhouse were covered in shelves, those shelves covered again in a multitude of potted plants. Overhead were nearly as many more hanging plants. The vines of one of these snaked down and began reaching out for Alice, but Sprout noticed and batted the vine away. "Behave!" she said sternly. To Alice's amazement, the vine obeyed and retreated back into its suspended pot. That's when Alice noticed that all of the pots above her head weren't held up by wires or chains, as they would be in a muggle household, but were simply hovering in midair, much like the candles of the Great Hall.

"You can sit here," said Professor Sprout. The woman picked up what appeared to be an empty pot from one of the two chairs before her desk and set it on the floor. With the back of a hand, she brushed some dirt off the chair and pulled it out for Alice to sit in. The girl sat. Professor Sprout began bustling around the room, checking a few of her plants, so Alice took the time to examine the room further. The chair beside her still had a pot in the seat, but looking into it made Alice's stomach crawl. It appeared that there was only dirt in the pot, but the dirt continually moved, as if it were being stirred. The pot on the floor which Sprout had just moved, after a quick look, proved to actually be empty, so Alice ignored it. Sprout's desk itself seemed to be more like a table than a desk. It had no drawers in it, but compartments had been attached to either side of it. Hanging off to one side of the table was a container with many different gardening tools in it. On the other side of the table was a small organizer with ungraded students' papers, the only thing in the entire room which Alice could see that was evidence that Professor Sprout was a teacher in addition to being a herbologist.

"Alright," said Professor Sprout, plopping down into her own chair on the other side of her desk/table. "What seems to be the problem Bint?"

Alice stared at the older woman for a few seconds in disbelief before voicing, "But you called me here, Professor." She began to pull out the note, but Sprout waved her hand to indicate it wouldn't be necessary.

"Yes, I know that. But you have a problem. That's why I called you in here. As your Head of House, it's my duty to make sure you're doing well in all your classes. You haven't been keeping up lately, have you?"

Alice blushed and hung her head. "I'm trying hard," she mumbled.

"Well of course you are!" said Sprout. "One of the best qualities of the Hufflepuff House! Hardworking!" Sprout narrowed her eyes seriously. "But even hard work isn't always enough Alice. For instance, what do you think would happen if you found yourself lost in the woods and you set out in one direction and worked hard to keep going straight, without ever consulting a map?"

Alice could see that the professor intended for her to actually answer the question, so she gave it some thought. "Umm," she finally ventured. "That could be a bad thing. If you're near the edge of the wood, you might pick the wrong direction and only head further in."

"Exactly," said Professor Sprout. "Wouldn't it be better, in that situation, to check a map, turn around, and walk out of the wood?"

Alice nodded in assent.

"Well there you have it."

Alice didn't understand. "There you have what?"

Sprout smiled warmly. "You've already understood the weakness of hard work. So many Hufflepuffs never understand that, but you've already figured it out, and you only a first year." Sprout pulled a spare piece of parchment out of the organizer which held students' papers and she inked a quill. "How often do you study, Bint?"

"All the time," said Alice automatically. "I spend lots of time in the library."

Sprout nodded as she began writing something on the paper before her. "That's good. Your hard work is in the right place. _Studying!_ You understand that hard work is strengthened by intelligence to guide it. Still," Sprout looked up into Alice's face, "you struggle with your spellwork, don't you?"

Alice saw no good in lying. She nodded. "I can't get even some of the simplest spells to work. I can't create a light on the end of my wand or cause a feather to levitate."

"Yes," said Sprout, folding up the paper and setting her quill aside. "I had the same problem when I was a student."

Alice's eyes widened. "_You_! But, but, you're a teacher now. You're a full fledged witch!"

"I almost didn't pass my tests after my first year at Hogwarts," Sprout admitted. "Though I trust you won't spread that around."

Alice shook her head vigorously.

"I was lent a book my second year that helped me turn things around. In the end, I stuck with herbology which involves little to no wandwork, but that book made it so that I didn't _have_ to go down that route." Professor Sprout tapped the folded paper on her desk a few times and then slid it across the table at Alice. "It's in the restricted section. This permission note should be enough for you to be able to check it out from the library at any time this year. If you still need it next year, just come to me and I'll write you another permission slip. It's a book on magical theory and should help you to make your spells work."

Alice took the piece of paper mutely, thunderstruck. She found her voice again. "Thank you! Thank you so much professor!"

Sprout smiled. "It's no trouble." She grinned mischievously. "And maybe, once you start doing better in your other classes, you can work a bit harder at herbology."

* * *

As soon as Alice got through her Monday classes, she headed straight for the library. Madam Pince sniffed irritably at the note Alice handed to her before storming off. She returned holding a huge book. "You better not mistreat my book!" she proclaimed, setting the book down before Alice. Alice simply nodded and waited for the old librarian to leave her alone so that she could study.

The book was not what Alice had been expecting. Most of the history books she had checked out had looked as old as the histories they chronicled, but this book looked as if it had been recently published and never before read. The white cover was stainless, all the pages crisp. The gold script on the cover wasn't peeling like most of the other books she had read, so she could still make out every letter clearly.

_Magical Theory: Spellcasting_ by Meredith Merriswish.

It _sounded_ useful. Alice truly hoped that this book would turn her life around. She opened the book straight to the table of contents.

_Chapter One: The History of Magical Theory_

She didn't need to read any further than that. Without a second thought, Alice flipped over to the first chapter and began reading. The smile on her face got wider the more she read. Mrs. Merriswish gave an in-depth explanation of the difference between wizards and squibs and then spoke of an in-between group which Alice had never heard of before which the author called 'wibbs.' The chapter wasn't so much a history as it was a justification for the study of magical theory itself. Apparently, wibbs had just as much magic as witches and wizards but they couldn't access it as easily, sometimes being seen and thought of as squibs. Meredith Merriswish, a wibb herself, had put together this book to help other wibbs to gain access to 'the magic deep within' so that they could better interact with witches and wizards. From the detailed description of wibbs, Alice became convinced that she was one. Without skipping a beat after finishing chapter one, she turned the page and kept going.

_Chapter Two: Ten Quick Tips for Successful Spellcasting_

Alice paid close attention to everything she read in this chapter. These were instructions which she would do her best to follow the next day in charms.

The first few tips were things which Alice already knew. A spell would never work as you wanted it to unless you used the correct wand movements and an exact pronunciation. Keeping eye contact with the object of the spell also enhanced the accuracy of the casting. While this was often enough for witches and wizards though, this was _not_ enough for wibbs. More important than outward accuracy was internal confidence. According to the book, wibbs would always have an easier time casting spells in their native language because they would feel as if they had a certain amount of control over the spell which didn't exist in most other spells. Alice thought then of two spells which worked for her every time now. _Point me_ and, in flying, _up_.

Tips four and five both spoke of different ways to _think at _your spells in order to gain control over them and in order to heighten your own confidence when presented with new spells. Alice didn't try them yet, but after reading over the two tips a few times, she was certain that she'd be able to use them. No spell should feel beyond her if she practiced these tips enough.

Tip six explained an odd breathing pattern which the book swore would slow down a person's heart beat and clear their head as they approached a spell, and tip seven gave a detailed description of the best postures to use with the breathing pattern based on where the castor was and whether they were sitting, standing, or lying down.

The next two tips both claimed to be the most important tips of the chapter. They both dealt with the mind and the ways to think about a spell. Tip nine was especially about how much the castor _wanted_ to cast the spell. Alice wasn't so sure that she understood either of these tips, but the book promised that later chapters would expand upon how spells should be thought about as this was the most important aspect to successfully casting spells.

Finally, tip ten explained how to do everything at once without losing hold of one of the other aspects and also how to concentrate enough to keep a spell going once it had been started. When Alice finished reading about it, she felt as if she were waterlogged and completely mentally exhausted.

Slowly, she closed the book, stood up, and stretched. Just as slowly, she lifted the book and began walking toward the restricted section. Surprisingly, _Magical Theory_, which was much bigger than any of her textbooks, was only as heavy as her lightest book, so she had no trouble carrying it. Just as Alice was about to walk into the restricted section, a hand came down on her shoulder.

"You can't go in there," said the girl beside her.

"Oh," said Alice, stopping short. "But I have to put this book back." She showed the inside cover to the older girl. The sticker on it clearly said 'Restricted Section.'

The girl adjusted her glasses and pushed her red-blond hair behind her ears as she leaned over to examine the sticker. "Well it is," she said, a bit surprised. "I've never had a book from in there before," she admitted. "But I've seen other people put them here." She motioned toward a book-return slot next to the restricted section barrier.

Alice was a bit nervous about putting the book in there since it was in such pristine condition and Madam Pince was such a terror, but she didn't see any alternative. She lifted the book to the slot. It was too big. She was about to say so when the slot opened wider and the book was snatched from her hands by some unseen magic to fly through the slot and lower slowly into the return box till it was out of sight. The slot returned to its previous size.

"Charming, isn't it?" asked the other girl, smiling at the book-return.

"Yeah," said Alice awkwardly.

"I'm Susie, by the way. Susie Wambly." The girl held out a hand.

"My name's Alice Bint," said Alice, taking the offered hand.

"See you around, Bint!" said Susie, disappearing between two bookshelves.

* * *

Alice awoke early the following day. Professor Flitwick had hinted in their previous lesson that they would be moving onto new spells soon, but she hoped they would still be performing _Wingardium Leviosa_ today because she wanted to see if she could finally do it.

A smile lit up on Alice's face as she walked into the charms classroom. A feather was sitting before every seat in the room. Most of the other students had actually moved past feathers and had been levitating heavier objects recently, but the feathers had still been there in every class period.

Alice sat down in the corner where she had always sat. Steven was already there, but for the first time ever, Alice had left Ava behind. The other girl had struggled with her hair that morning, trying to tame it since it was extra frizzy. She had finally told the other Hufflepuff girls to leave without her, promising she'd catch up. Alice closed her eyes, straightened her shoulders, and began going through the motions of the breathing exercise.

"What are you doing?" asked Steven. He set down his books on his desk with a loud snapping sound. Alice flinched at the noise. Steven had moved up to levitating books last week.

Alice opened one eye to peer at the boy. "I'm breathing," she said. She closed the eye again and concentrated on her breathing.

She became so absorbed in the rhythm of her breath that she barely noticed when Ava joined them, though she did notice Steven explain to Ava, in a whisper, "She's breathing." As soon as the room filled with the voices of the other students pronouncing the levitation spell, Alice opened her eyes to slits. She stared steadily at her feather and lifted her wand. Concentrating hard on _wanting_ the feather to rise, she performed a perfect swish and flick and proclaimed "_Wingardium Leviosa!_"

The feather rose into the air. Without taking her eyes off of it, she lifted her wand slowly. The feather rose with it, straight into the air. A buzzing sound filled her ears. As soon as she realized what the sound was, Alice blushed and lost her concentration, the feather drifted down, caught in gravity's grip. Ava, Steven, a few of the other Hufflepuffs, Professor Flitwick, and even a few Gryffindors were all clapping. The feather landed in the long hair of the girl who sat before her.

"Oh I'm sorry!" said Alice, as the girl began to turn around. "_Wingardium Leviosa_." The feather lifted out of the girl's hair, but Alice wasn't concentrating as hard as before, so the girl's hair began to lift too. The girl quickly put her hand up to smooth her hair out and Alice reached out to snatch the feather from the air. Then she let her head fall, her hair swinging forward to cover her blushing face.

"Excellent!" said Professor Flitwick, now standing in front of her. "Fifteen points to Hufflepuff. You have really been practicing, Bint. Would you like to try to levitate something heavier?"

Alice nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment. She was terribly embarrassed. How many people who had been clapping told Alice that everyone cared about her and wanted her to succeed, but it also showed her just how many people had noticed that she had never performed the levitation spell before.

As Flitwick set a kerchief on Alice's desk, she pushed these thoughts out of her mind and focused on her breathing again, staring hard at the piece of cloth. When she felt confident enough, she waved her wand and spoke the spell. The kerchief twitched and a corner of it began to rise. Alice squinted her eyes at it, scrunching up her face. She performed the spell once more and tried not to smile too much as the kerchief rose as easily into the air as the feather had.

Alice didn't move past the kerchief that day, but she didn't mind. It was too much of a joy to see that piece of cloth, or the feather again, rise slowly into the air over her head. _I'm a witch_, she thought. _No, even better, I'm a wibb!_

As soon as the class was dismissed, she did make an effort to catch up with the girl who sat in front of her though.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean the feather to land in your hair! Your name's Hadrin, right?"

The girl flashed a big smile at Alice. "It's ok. It was your first time to make the spell work, right?"

"Yes," said Alice timidly.

"You'll get better then. Oh, and you can call me Katleigh. Hadrin's my last name."

"Alright," said Alice. "See you later, Katleigh."


	10. Mixing Houses

Characters introduced in this chapter: Real life friends: Cristina - Juliana Ramsden, Mary - Akiko Virata, Amanda - Kai Virata

Mixing Houses

Alice's performance in Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts improved drastically due to her continued study of _Magical Theory_. She had thought herself inept at all three before, but she began to see a continued trend in her spellwork as the spells began to give forth results.

Transfiguration became Alice's pot of gold. In her first class after cracking open _Magical Theory_, she succeeded in turning a match into a needle, joining the slightly less than half the class who had performed the spell correctly. As Professor McGonagall moved onto the next class project (changing sandpaper into parchment), Alice was the fourth person in the class to pull the spell off. Beside History of Magic, Transfiguration became Alice's favorite class. At Charms, she was fairly average. None of her spells worked on the first try, but she could get all of them to work well enough eventually. In Defense Against the Dark Arts though, she found herself, sadly, near the bottom end of the class. Still, she stuck with the Dueling Club, attending every meeting. The main thing she regretted upon learning of her trouble with Defense Against the Dark Arts was that she knew that she could not teach Elizabeth all of the spells she was learning in class. She did know who could though.

* * *

Alice sat in the corner of the common room, her Potions book open before her and Elizabeth beside her, explaining the best ways to cut up the ingredients for Alice's next potion. Alice paid close attention to all of the hints Elizabeth was giving her, but she also kept shooting glances at the stairs leading up to the boy's dormitory. Soon it would be suppertime, so the traffic around both stairways was growing and Alice wanted to make sure that she didn't miss the person she was looking for. 

When she saw him, Alice jumped up suddenly. "I'm sorry," she said to Elizabeth quickly, "but I'll be right back." Alice pushed her way through some fourth years, calling back over her shoulder, "I'm sorry!"

Reaching the boys she was after, Alice grabbed the sleeve of the nearest one. It was Joseph. He turned to face Alice as soon as he felt her tugging on the sleeve of his robe. "Alice?" he asked. He gave her a puzzled look and she let go of his robe immediately.

"I needed to talk with Steven," she said. Steven, a few paces ahead, turned to see what had become of Joseph, and his eyes fell on Alice as he heard his name.

Alice blushed. Of course, she knew what it was that she wanted to ask, but now that the time had come to speak, she felt like such an idiot, standing in the middle of the common room, holding these boys up. "I just," she started. She bit her lip. "Oh, would you come this way? Over to the corner?" She pointed at the yellow bean bags in the corner. Elizabeth sat on one of them, staring at Alice and her companions.

Joseph shrugged. "I don't see any reason why not." He began walking over toward Elizabeth. Gratefully, Alice followed, Steven only a step behind her. In a moment, the four of them were all together and all eyes were upon Alice.

"I…" began Alice.

"What's this about?" asked Elizabeth. "Have you promised them I'll tutor them as well?"

"No," said Alice quickly. "I wouldn't do that. But I," she let her chin fall, her hair swishing forward to cover her face, "maybe I'm doing just that," she mumbled. Sighing deeply, Alice lifted her head and looked straight into Elizabeth's face. "I can't teach you," she blurted out. "I can't teach you what we're learning in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I stink at it." Alice kept her eyes on Elizabeth, forcing herself to not look at either of the boys.

Elizabeth's forehead creased with concern. "You should have told me that earlier," she said. "I never would have made you help me do something that you can't do. Did you think I wouldn't understand? I have subjects that I struggle with too."

"I don't understand," said Joseph. "What's going on?"

"Elizabeth has been helping me with Potions," said Alice, turning to face Joseph now. "I promised her I'd teach her what Professor Potter's been teaching us in return, since she had a different Defense Against the Dark Arts professor last year. But I can't do it. But I should have spoken with you before now," she said, turning to look at Steven. "I thought that maybe you could teach her, but it's not my place to ask you to."

"This is all becoming way too complicated," said Elizabeth. "Alice, I'll still help you with Potions. I don't mind."

"So you want to learn the first year spells?" asked Steven of Elizabeth.

She regarded him for a second before nodding.

"I wouldn't mind teaching you. I like the subject well enough and I've wanted to get more practice in it outside of class and the Dueling Club. I could work with all three of you, if you wanted."

Alice and Joseph agreed instantly. They were easily the two worst Hufflepuffs at Defense Against the Dark Arts and could use the practice.

* * *

The next few weeks passed easily enough. Alice had developed a schedule outside of her classes. On Mondays and Thursdays she stopped by the library to study _Magical Theory_ for about an hour, on Tuesdays Elizabeth would help her with her Potions work, and on Wednesdays she would meet with Steven, Joseph, and Elizabeth to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts. She gave herself nothing to do on Fridays and usually spent those afternoons hanging out with her friends. 

Before long, October wound down to an end, spurred on by everyone's busy schedules. All of a sudden, it looked as if whoever had been cleaning the castle had gone on strike as the cobwebs began to grow in all of the corners, but when they started glowing as well, the students knew that they were nothing more than decorations. Halloween was on everyone's mind, and the first years waited eagerly for the day to arrive, listening with awe to the older student's descriptions of the Halloween feast.

Halloween morning dawned cold and clear. Though it was a Friday, classes had been cancelled for the holiday. Alice was personally disappointed that she would miss History of Magic, but she didn't say so to anyone else. Anyway, she was just as excited as everyone else about the feast that night, and since Halloween was also the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, nearly all of the students third year and up would be gone, leaving the school to the first and second years. Bella and Keri had made plans with some of their Gryffindor friends for the day and Ava had told Alice that she wished to hang out with Blaine.

Alice had gone to bed late the night before, since she had been finishing up a paper for Astronomy, but she decided to set her own plans in order immediately upon waking up Halloween morning. After rolling out of bed, she put a hand on Daphne's shoulder, gently shaking her.

"Daphne, wake up! It's Halloween." Alice felt a bit ridiculous saying such a thing, since any type of celebration on this day would be held at night and not first thing in the morning, but the words had come out of her mouth before she could stop them. Looking past Daphne's bed, she could see that Ava was already gone, though the curtains were still pulled closed around both Bella's and Keri's beds.

Daphne turned over in bed, mumbling something which Alice couldn't understand. Alice shook her harder, speaking her name again. Daphne turned back toward Alice, opened tired eyes to see who was trying to wake her up, and then closed them again, falling right back to sleep.

"Oh Daphne, won't you wake up already? I wanted to go up to breakfast."

"What time is it?" asked Daphne with a yawn, her eyes still closed.

"Umm," said Alice, looking around the room. This was one of those times when she regretted not having a window in the room, and neither was there a clock on the wall, but Ava kept a small clock on her vanity, the clockwork inside powered by magic instead of gears, so Alice skipped to the end of Daphne's bed and squinted at the clock face. "It's nearly nine o'clock," she called back to Daphne, who had finally sat up.

"Alright," said Daphne, sliding out of bed and getting dressed. Alice, still in pajamas herself, joined the other girl. Before long, they were both ready and they tip-toed past their sleeping roommates and out the door.

"Whoa!" called Daphne, landing on her bum and sliding out of sight. Alice found herself clinging to the doorknob of their door, shuffling her feet frantically as she tried to keep from falling down the staircase, now a slide. After a moment of struggle, she succeeded in getting the door closed and she let go, sliding down the slick incline on her side. She landed in a heap at the bottom and Daphne put down a hand to help her up, a big smile on her face. Alice began laughing as soon as she stood up.

"Who do you think tried to get up the stairs this morning?" she asked.

Daphne pointed at an older boy who was quickly exiting the portrait hole. The boy was blushing so fiercely that even his ears had turned red. The two girls laughed the entire way to the Great Hall.

Breakfast was nothing special that morning, though most of the students were shoveling it down quickly.

"Lucky them," said Daphne, buttering some toast. "They get to go to Hogsmeade. I've never been. Mom never took me."

"Then we'll have to explore it in two years time together," said Alice with a smile. "I've never been there either. My parents would always take me to Diagon Alley whenever we needed anything."

Just then, Professor McGonagall stood up from her seat at the staff table. "Anyone wishing to go to Hogsmeade, please give your permission slips to Mr. Filch in the entrance hall. You will be leaving shortly." The Hall became chaos as the students jumped up from their tables and began pushing their way toward the door. The third years, especially, looked very excited. Daphne sighed as she watched them go.

As the Hall finally quieted down, she leaned across the table. "So, what do you want to do today? I don't really care, just so long as it's not work."

"I thought we might stop by Hagrid's hut and then spend our time by the lake."

"Hagrid?" asked Daphne. "Isn't he the Keeper of Keys, or something like that?"

"Yeah, that's what I heard," said Alice.

* * *

While paying Hagrid's hut a visit had sounded like a good idea over breakfast, it was entirely different to actually be there. This was the closest that either of the girls had ever been to the Forbidden Forest and it seemed as if the air around the forest edge was colder than anywhere else on the grounds. Even in broad daylight, the two girls kept spooking themselves, imagining that they could see things moving just past the trees or hear moans or tapping sounds off in the distance. Hagrid's hut itself looked homey enough, with smoke flowing out of the chimney, but both girls knew who Hagrid was and his height alone was enough to make them so timid they couldn't stand within a few strides of the door, much less knock on it. 

A hoarse cry sounded from behind the hut. Alice leading the way, the young Hufflepuffs crept around the cottage to see what had made the sound. A gruesome beast met their eyes. It looked like a cross between an oversized buzzard and an octopus, its head being scrawny, bald, and red with more than four tentacle-like legs flailing about its torso. It took less than a second for both girls to turn tail and run, screaming, all the way to the lake, neither of them looking back.

"What _was_ that thing?" asked Daphne, as soon as she had calmed down enough, sitting on the lake's edge.

"I don't know," said Alice. "And I don't think I want to know."

Daphne nodded her head in silent agreement and neither of them made another suggestion to head back toward the hut, both of them enjoying the rest of their day on the lake's bank, saying hi to many of their friends who had also chosen spots along the shore.

As the sun began to set, many students were returning from Hogsmeade, carrying bags of sweets and games and laughing merrily. Daphne and Alice got up from the ground and made their way inside as well, eager for the feast which would soon start.

The lights of the entrance hall had been dimmed so that it felt like twilight. The Great Hall was a little brighter with the light coming from the ceiling, bewitched to look like the sky above, but as the sun slipped away, the light in the Hall came more from the jack-o-lanterns hovering over the tables in midair than from the ceiling above. Clouds of live bats twittered in the room, the most interesting Halloween decorations by far.

As Daphne and Alice took their seats at the Hufflepuff table though, something other than the decorations was different. Sitting across from them was Alanna, a Gryffindor first year. Within a moment, Sean was sitting next to her.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked his twin.

"The Hall sure looks different from here," said Alanna. "But, you're sure I can do this, right?"

"Of course," said Sean. "It's a Hogwarts tradition: in all feasts other than the start of term and end of term feasts, you can sit wherever you please."

Alice blinked at them both and then turned around to look at the rest of the Hall. She hadn't heard of such a tradition before, but a quick glance around seemed to verify its truth. At the Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor tables, there was a great mixture of student from various houses. Even after a quick glance at the Sytherin table, she could see more than just green collars, though the table was the least mixed in the room.

"Hello Daphne!" said Alanna, turning from her brother to see who else she recognized at the table. Daphne returned the greeting and the two of them began talking about flying lessons. They were each in the "unnatural flyers" group, so they had a mutual hate of the subject.

Sean began shaking his head. "I don't know how you two could not like flying. Broomsticks have to be the best wizard invention of all time! I tried out for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, you know."

"Yeah, and you nearly got in too," said Tania. She and Elizabeth had just sat down beside Sean. "Too bad Hufflepuff only had one seventh year on the team last year. If they'd had even one more opening, I'm sure you'd be on the team."

Sean blushed red. "Thanks Tania."

"I'm only saying the truth," she responded.

"I thought the two of you were going to sit somewhere else," said Sean.

"Oh, we will," said Elizabeth, "but later."

"No one told me that we could sit anywhere today," said Alice, trying to get into the conversation.

"I'm sorry," said Elizabeth. "I guess to the rest of us, it's common knowledge. Sometimes I forget you're only a first year."

"It wasn't always this way," said a boy, a little ways down the table. Alice recognized him as James, the sixth year whose job it was to escort the first years to night time Astronomy lessons. She had come to like him, realizing that he truly enjoyed his particular prefect duties and liked the company of the younger students. "This tradition wasn't even started until my second year," he continued.

"Yeah, I heard it wasn't always this way," said Sean with interest. "So, how'd it all start?"

"Well," continued James, scooting down the bench a bit toward his audience. "It was Halloween, my second year. Most of the seventh years and quite a few sixth years were gone. They were at Durmstrang for the Triwizard Tournament. It was really odd, not having them here, but then things got even odder. After the food appeared, all of a sudden, about five students each from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor just stood up and walked to another table. I'm telling you, it caused an uproar! Most of the older students were completely against it, from all four houses. For the next two years, many of them kept trying to stop it, but at each feast, more and more students would switch tables. Last year was the first year that the Slytherins joined in on the practice, but even they look pretty accustomed to it now, now don't they?" He pointed at the neighboring table. A few of the Slytherins looked upset to share their table with students from the other houses, but for the most part, they all looked compliant. "Anyway, there was a little Hogwarts history for you," said James. "Enjoy the feast!" He scooted back away from them toward his own friends, which included, this day, two Ravenclaws.

"Hey Alice," said Ava, coming up behind her. "I'm going to be at the Ravenclaw table today, ok? I'm sitting with Blaine and Dominic."

"Alright," said Alice, turning to see her friend off. That's when she noticed her other two roommates settling down across the room at the Gryffindor table. Bella and Keri looked comfortable and happy sitting on either side of short girl with curly hair whose name Alice was certain was Angelica.

"Sure is noisy in here as everyone gets settled," said Alanna. "When do you think the food's going to appear?"

As if it had only been waiting for her to ask, the tables were suddenly laden down with the feast that everyone had been looking forward to all day. There were baked potatoes and mushroom soup, hot rolls and stuffing, lamb chops and roast chicken, and roasted pumpkin seeds and jugs full of pumpkin juice. All of the students let out a cheer, and Dumbledore, wearing a black and orange striped robe, waved at them all to begin the feast.

Throughout the meal, there were still more changes among the tables. Many of the students had different groups of friends that they would sit with for fifteen minutes before moving on to the next group. Shortly before the feast changed from the main course to dessert, Tania and Elizabeth excused themselves and wandered over to the Gryffindor table. Two Ravenclaws quickly claimed their spaces.

"Hello Alice, Daphne," said Alyson, pouring herself some pumpkin juice.

"Hi!" said Alice and Daphne at the same time.

"The Ravenclaw table was just too crowded," explained Eve, brushing her red hair out of her face. "You know, since it's right between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. We had to get away."

"Yes," agreed Alyson. "And we couldn't think of a better place to go than here."

"That's sweet," said Daphne.

Just then, the dessert appeared before them all.

"Ooo, pumpkin pie! That's my favorite," said Alice, hastening to cut herself a slice. Daphne began laughing at her as she put some pudding onto her own plate.

"I'm surprised they even have candy corn," said Alyson, looking at the bowl of candy directly in front of her. "Usually I don't see muggle candy around here much."

"Well, it might not really be candy corn," said Eve, eyeing the candy suspiciously. "It might be spelled to blow up in your mouth or something."

"I really doubt they'd serve us trick candy," said Alanna. "Not here at least. I'd be careful accepting anything from an older student, but we should be able to trust anything served to us at a feast."

"She's right," put in Sean. "All of these sweets are nothing more than sweets, though I wouldn't mind a Fizzing Whizbee."

Halfway through dessert, Dumbledore called everyone's attention to the night's entertainment. The Hogwarts ghosts had put together a skit of a sort in which the Grey Lady and the Fat Friar had a forbidden love affair and the Bloody Baron and Sir Nicholas held a mock duel (with ghost swords, not wands). While the ghosts might have planned for it to be a serious skit, it turned out to be mostly hilarious. The Fat Friar accidentally knocked the Grey Lady over just as they were about to "run off" together, and during the duel between the Bloody Baron and Sir Nicholas, Nick's head lolled off to one side, causing him to completely miss the Baron's sword, sinking his sword instead into the Baron's left foot. As the ghosts cleared off, to copious laughter from the students, Alice found that the remnant of dessert had disappeared as well. The feast was over and it was finally, regrettably, time to leave.

Alyson began to stand up, but somehow she tripped and practically fell off the back of her bench. Luckily, Eve seemed to have been expecting this, and she caught her green-eyed friend before she could hit the ground. As Eve helped Alyson back up onto the bench, both girls were laughing hysterically.

"Are you alright?" asked Alice, concerned.

"Oh, haha, we're both such klutzes!" said Eve, patting Alyson on the back.

"Yes," put in Alyson. "We both seem to be good friends with the ground!"

Eve began laughing harder. "Hehe, and only the other day, and this really happened, I lost my footing at the top of the main staircase and tumbled all the way down. I lost most of my books in the fall and landed in the entrance hall. I thought I'd die of embarrassment!"

"Not likely," said Alyson. "You were laughing too much at yourself. It was nothing like my fall last week. Remember when we were walking down to Herbology? I fell flat on my face and there wasn't even anything to trip over. Those Slytherins, what were they, fourth years, fifth years? Oh, it doesn't matter. They laughed at me the whole way to Greenhouse One!"

"That's bad luck," said Daphne, shaking her head at the two Ravenclaws. "I'm glad I don't fall that often."

"Hehe," said Eve, putting an arm around her friend, "It's alright. It gives us character."

They all began to stand up and move along the table. Looking around the room, Alice sensed that something was wrong. It took a while for her to figure it out, but once she did, she stopped in her tracks, causing Daphne to collide into her back.

"Whoa, Alice. What's up?"

"Why aren't the Slytherins leaving?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?" asked Alanna, turning to look at the Slytherin table. While the other students were making their way toward the doors, the Slytherins had remained in their seats, though most of them were staring at the doors into the entrance hall and the other students who were about to pass through them.

"I don't like this," whispered Daphne.

There was no time to call out a warning. The group of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors by the door hadn't noticed that the Slytherins weren't moving, and they walked through the double doors without a second thought. Next, Alice could hear them screaming. She pushed her way to the end of the table so that she could have a view of the entrance hall. The Slytherins began standing up, most of them laughing. The people who had walked through the doors appeared to be covered in the gunk from the insides of pumpkins mixed with other slimy foods. Alice grimaced at the sight.

"What, you don't like it, Bint?" Alice turned to look at the tall, black haired Slytherin. She was hanging on one of the Falcon twins, probably Jake, if the smirk on his face meant anything. The other Falcon twin stood at her other side. It took a moment for the girl's name to come to mind.

"No Ramsden, I don't," said Alice. "Did you set this up?"

"No," said the girl, "but I knew about it, obviously."

"Come on, Juliana," said Jake. "Let's go the common room." The three Slytherins turned to leave.

"I don't think I like them," said Daphne. Alice jumped. She hadn't noticed the girl coming up beside her.

Alice didn't say anything, but she nodded. She just stood there and watched the Slytherins filing past. She heard Leslie's laugh before the blond came into sight. As always, a short, black haired Slytherin stood at her side, but Alice had to do a double take. There were two black haired girls this time, only the second wore the blue collar of a Ravenclaw and her hair was braided. In fact, there were two Ravenclaw girls. The other Ravenclaw had red hair, hair as red as the Slytherin boy standing next to her. _The Virata twins_, Alice thought, looking at the two girls, _and the Dalziel twins. _She looked back at the two redheads, the girl with long hair, the boy's hair spiked._ It must be very weird to have a twin in Slytherin._ The two Ravenclaw girls, unlike the Slytherins around them, were not laughing. _Very weird indeed._


	11. Exciting Game

Exciting Game

Alice, Ava, Daphne, Josef, and Michael walked outside into the chill November morning air. They were each bundled up in warm clothes and sporting a thick yellow and black scarf, though Alice and Michael were also holding small red flags. Without a word, they turned toward the Quidditch field and started forward at a brisk trot. Many other students could be seen before them, nearly all of them walking with the same quick, unconscious gait. The Quidditch season had begun!

"I wish Hufflepuff was playing," said Michael as they neared the pitch.

"I don't," said Ava. "It's better this way. Hufflepuff has more time to practice before their first game and they also get to see Gryffindor and Slytherin play before they have to play against them."

"I don't think that's really an advantage," said Alice. "I mean, the next game is Hufflepuff verses Ravenclaw, so both Gryffindor and Slytherin get to see those two teams play before they have to play against them."

"Oh yeah," said Ava.

"But the extra practice is still an advantage," added Alice.

"I'm sure it'll be a great game, regardless," said Josef. The others nodded in assent.

The Quidditch field was a different place as they walked out onto it. Of course, they had all been here many times before for their flying class, but the lawn had never been so tidily cut (_Why go to such lengths to cut the grass over a field that people are only going to be flying over?_ thought Alice) or the stands so packed with students. The banners of red and gold or green and silver were also a new addition and added a festive feel to the field which made the five first years want to yell and cheer happily.

"Where can we sit?" asked Daphne, staring up into the rapidly filling stands.

"Look for yellow," suggested Michael.

Among all the red and green, the sparse pockets of yellow were easy to spot. Many Hufflepuffs were already sitting in the stands.

"Look, there's some second years," said Alice, pointing toward the stands on the far side of the field, a little off the center of the pitch. All of a sudden, she felt a little odd. While she was pretty close friends with Elizabeth and then again with Elizabeth's friends, not all of the first years had spent time with them, and except for Daphne, none of the friends Alice was currently with knew the second years that she was friends with very well. Still, as Alice began to head for the area of the stands she had pointed to, the four people behind her followed her lead.

"I see you've brought new friends," mentioned Tania as they all took their seats. "You must be popular."

Alice shook her head, blushing. _The last thing I am is popular. I'm not sure I really fit in anywhere. If I did, I'd have a group of close friends I'm always with and I wouldn't be with different people every day._

"Leave her alone," chided Elizabeth.

An uncomfortable silence commenced, but before it could really set in, Sean stood up and pointed toward the stands just below them. Everything from the excitement in his voice to the ease of his stance revealed that he, at least, hadn't been aware of the silence at all. "Look, there they are!" he shouted.

Ava stood up as well and peered down onto the field. "Is the game going to start already? I don't see the players. Really, those people standing up in front are blocking my view anyway. There who are?"

Tania began to laugh. "Oh, don't let him worry you. The game won't start for a bit longer. And those people blocking your view of the field are the very people he's so excited about."

"Well of course," said Sean, looking down at the people sitting around him. "Who else could I have been talking about? It's the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team!"

"Really?" asked Ava, not even bothering to hide the excitement in her own voice. All five first years gazed down at the seven individuals who were taking their seats. Or, actually, only six of them were sitting. The last was standing in front of them, walking up and down the line, apparently giving a speech.

"I wish I could hear what he was saying," said Sean, looking upon the speaking Hufflepuff with awe. "Trent's a genius."

"Stare hard enough," Tania joked, "and maybe you'll miraculously learn how to read lips and then you won't have to wish any more."

Sean gave her a scathing look. Unfazed, Tania continued. "And if he were such a genius, then why did Hufflepuff come in third last year?"

"Well, it was only his first year as Captain," defended Sean.

Just then, three Gryffindors clamored up into the stands to right before where Sean was standing. "Hey bro," said one of them. "If you don't sit down, then when the game starts, no one behind you will be able to see."

"Why's everyone attacking me?" asked Sean, but he sat down. "Hi Alanna. I bet you're excited."

"Well of course!" she said. "Gryffindor is going to clobber Slytherin today, you just see if they don't!"

"Aren't you going to introduce us to your friends?" asked the short girl at Alanna's side. Seeing her long, brown hair, Alice recognized the girl instantly. How could she forget where the first feather she'd ever levitated had landed?

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Alanna. "Katleigh, this is my brother, Sean. And those are his friends," she motioned toward Elizabeth and Tania. Then, looking toward the other people sitting around, she said, "and these are some of the Hufflepuffs in our year, so hopefully an introduction isn't necessary. Everyone, this is Katleigh." Katleigh flashed the group a huge smile. Without missing a beat, Alanna took the hand of her other friend. "And everyone, this is Anne."

Introductions over, the group began to settle.

"Oh look!" said Elizabeth, pointing across the field. "Tania, can you tell who that is, in the teacher's section?"

The girl's dark brown eyes squinted across the pitch and she smiled before replying. "It's alright. It's Rice!"

Elizabeth sighed. "For a minute there I thought it was Lisa Mowat."

"Who?" asked Michael.

"Mowat," said Elizabeth. "She's one of the commentators, a Ravenclaw. But she stinks at it. May is much better."

"Testing," said a clear, loud voice, carrying to every corner of the Quidditch field. "Testing, this is May Rice, your commentator today." Then the girl went quiet.

"The game should be starting soon," said Josef, looking at the watch on his arm.

"Oh I hope so," said Anne. "I've been waiting for this day. This is really exciting!"

"Yeah, it is," said Ava. "And it isn't even Hufflepuff playing."

"No," said Katleigh. "It's even better; it's Gryffindor."

Before they could start arguing over which house was the best, Miss Rice's voice could be heard again. "Welcome to the first Quidditch match of the season! Today it's Slytherin verses Gryffindor!"

A cheer met this pronouncement and banners and flags began waving all throughout the stands.

"First, let's see the Slytherin team!" Seven Quidditch players in green walked onto the pitch, each with a broom resting on their shoulder. The stands became even louder with yells. "The team this year is captained by Caige Lorsaw."

"He's the Seeker," said Sean to the first years.

"It's his first year as Captain, so we'll see what type of team he's put together. And now, bring out the Gryffindors!" The excitement in Rice's voice was palpable.

"What house is May in?" asked Alice as the Gryffindor team walked out onto the field to more cheering.

"She's in Gryffindor," said Elizabeth.

Alice nodded. "I thought so."

"Gryffindor is captained by Amber Riley," continued Rice. "It's her third year as Captain and she led the Gryffindor team to win the Quidditch Cup last year." More cheering. Alice felt like she was drowning in red cloth as the flags around her, one in her own hand, began waving madly. Rice let off saying anything further as Madam Hooch grabbed the attention of the fourteen Quidditch players. A member from each team (_The Captains_, thought Alice) shook hands and then the teams lined up on either side of Madam Hooch. No one in the stands could hear was she was saying, but she must have been instructing them to get on their brooms because they all mounted up within a second of each other and then kicked off the ground to hover in the air.

"And they're off!" called out Rice, her magnified voice easy to hear over the roar of the crowd. In a flash of red and green, then indeed were off. Four players converged on the red ball that Hooch had just thrown into the air while four other players broke off quickly from the main group, two heading straight into the air (_They must be the Seekers_), and one heading toward each end of the field (_There go the Keepers_).

"And it's Riley with possession of the Quaffle – moving toward the Slytherin goal, she passes to Finnigan who passes to Stephens – no, an interception by, who is that? Ramsden, Ramsden in possession of the Quaffle. Wow, that boy moves fast!"

"Ramsden?" asked Alice. _That's Juliana's last name. I didn't know she had a brother._

"Yeah," said Sean. Even with his eyes glued to the field, he apparently needed no urging to share his knowledge about the Hogwarts Quidditch teams. "He's one of Slytherin's new players this year," put in Sean. "A third year, but he doesn't look like a third year when he's on that broom. Fast!"

"And Ramsden passes to MacDougal," continued Rice. "MacDougal going for the Gryffindor goal – throws the Quaffle at the left goal – Yes! And a nice save by Taylor! Taylor passes off to Stephens, Stephens making his way down the field."

"The other new person on the Slytherin team," said Sean, aware that the first years around him had become an attentive audience, "is that big fellow with the Beater's bat. Fred Arnold. Can you believe he's a third year? He looks at least a fifth year."

Alice found herself looking for the Slytherin Beaters, but when she spotted one, she could barely believe her eyes. "Is that a girl?" she asked, pointing.

"What?" asked Sean, but then he followed where she was pointing and nodded. "Yep, that's Rachel Ryder. She's one of the best Beaters in the school; she had to be to get on the Slytherin team. I don't think they usually accept girls. But you need to watch out for her. She's been known to hit Bludgers into the stands when she's bored or when there are no good targets around."

"Baez fumbles the Quaffle – Riley now has the Quaffle, coming to the Slytherin goal, she shoots – wait – no, she passed to Finnigan, Finnigan puts the Qua – GRYFFINDOR SCORES!"

The cheer that erupted throughout the stands (and also a bit of booing by the Slytherins) actually eclipsed whatever Rice said next, but once the crowd calmed down again and the Quaffle was back in play, Alanna turned around to look at her brother. "If you know so much about all the players, why don't you tell us a bit about the Gryffindor team?"

"Alright," said Sean. "Well, any unbiased person would have to admit that Gryffindor probably has the best team this year." The three Gryffindor girls let out a cheer that had nothing to do with the Slytherin currently zooming across the field with the Quaffle. "Everyone on the team is a fifth year or older," continued Sean, choosing to ignore their glee. "Meaning they need to win this year because they'll have a harder time next year. They've been a team for three years running with the same people while all the other teams added at least one player this year."

"You need a life," said Tania. "I think Quidditch is the only thing you think about."

"There's nothing wrong with that," said Josef. Both he and Michael looked to be hanging on Sean's every word, though neither of them missed the Bludger that, at that moment, nearly took the head off of the Gryffindor Seeker.

"Woah, that was a close one!" said Anne.

"Wait, isn't that the Head Girl?" asked Daphne.

"Yeah," said Sean. "Priyanka Kumar, Head Girl, is the Seeker for Gryffindor team, but she's not the Captain! I have to admit, Amber Riley is a great Captain!" Alice giggled to herself, though no one heard her. It just struck her as funny that Sean obviously thought the title of Quidditch Captain was higher and more important than Head Girl.

"A nice dodge by Kumar," said Rice, "and now, Ramsden again, with the Quaffle. He's by Stephens and passes, no, he still has the Quaffle – Bludger! Ramsden hit by a Bludger. Good aim to – which one? – that was K. Spinner who hit the Bludger. Finnigan with the Quaffle, Ramsden still on his broom, I think he can still play."

Alice squinted at the short Slytherin Chaser, clutching his broom, but still flying, though not nearly as fast as before. She recognized his black hair now and was certain that he must be Juliana's older brother.

"Where was he hit?" asked Ava, sounding concerned.

"It looked like it just grazed his shoulder," said Michael. "Hey, how many Ramsdens are there?"

"Four," said Elizabeth, startling Alice, since she hadn't expected Elizabeth to be the person to answer. "All in Slytherin. The oldest, Jordon, is actually Head Boy. The youngest, well, I don't know her name, but she's a first year." Alice could see Jordon in her mind's eye. He had always seemed kind to her, leading students around the castle or helping a teacher to move things. She remembered how surprised she'd been when she realized he was in Slytherin at all, since he had appeared so nice on the train when he told her and the people in her compartment to get into their robes. She shook her head out of her reverie as she registered someone asking Sean about the Beaters.

"They're sisters," he said. "Aly and Kate Spinner. You know, Gryffindor is the only team with two girl Beaters, but the Spinner sisters are good. The whole Gryffindor team is strong this year."

"And Riley – did that just happen? – yes, Riley dropped the Quaffle. Baez with the Quaffle, heading down the pitch, dodges a Bludger. Wow, Bludger hit by Ryder – that nearly cracked the end off Stephens' broomstick! Baez still in possession of the Quaffle, shoots – and another miraculous save by Taylor! Taylor is outdoing himself!"

Rice's words were not nearly enough to express the actions of the Gryffindor Keeper. Alice had never seen flying like that in her life! Somehow, Taylor had lunged for the Quaffle to the side, but then, as Baez aimed lower, Taylor had let himself slip till he hung on his broom, upside down, and he caught the Quaffle, his legs wrapped tight around the broom, and then passed the Quaffle onto one of the Chasers before pulling himself right side up again. Alice's voice nearly went hoarse with all the yelling, and any more explanations from Sean were abandoned as, for about the next two to three minutes, the whole group of friends waved their flags and cheered the Gryffindor Chasers onward.

When the Gryffindors lost the Quaffle to the Slytherins again, everyone sat down. Sean began talking again. "Now Nathan Taylor, I bet he's the best Keeper in the school. He definitely has a future beyond Hogwarts. Ravenclaw scored against him last year, but that was because-"

Sean didn't finish whatever he'd been about to say as Rice's voice rose in a crescendo. "MacDougal with the – and there go the Seekers! Lorsaw followed quickly by Kumar, Slytherin end of the pitch, they must have seen the Snitch!" Rice stopped talking as everyone held their breaths, watching the Seekers dive.

"They're going to crash!" screamed Anne. Katleigh and Alanna were holding onto each other. Alice nearly closed her eyes, but she forced herself to watch the quickly descending players. A Bludger seemed to come from no where, zooming between the Seekers who swerved to get out of its way and then pulled up on their brooms, moments before they would have crashed into the ground. They separated and flew slowly back into the air.

Rice sighed and then continued her commentary. "The Snitch got away. I heard that Flitwick renewed the charms on our Hogwarts Snitch only this morning, so it should be extra fast and tricky today. And now, back to the action, looks like Ramsden with the Quaffle, is he going to try to score? – passes to MacDougal, Taylor's converging on MacDougal and MacDougal – he passed to Ramsden! Ramsden … Slytherin scores! Tied, ten to ten."

The shock was enough to quiet the Gryffindors, but many Slytherins and a few other students began cheering for the young injured Slytherin to actually put the Quaffle past the boy Sean had just dubbed 'the best Keeper in the school.' Taylor himself didn't take being scored against very well and he punched the air in frustration with such energy that he had to grab his broom quickly to keep from tumbling off. Alice and her friends sat in silence, watching to see if Taylor would do anything else while listening to Rice's commentary.

"And the Quaffle is passed off to Riley – looks like she's holding her team together well – passes to – woah, that Bludger hit the Quaffle! Arnold knocked the Quaffle away! Ramsden dives, grabs the Quaffle – Finnigan intercepts, Finnigan in possession of the Quaffle. Gryffindor moving down the field and – hey, that has to be a foul! Ryder can't do that!"

Alice turned to look. The female Slytherin Beater had flown straight into the Gryffindor boy with the Quaffle and they were currently falling while trying to untangle themselves from one another. One of the Spinner sisters, Riley, and Ramsden all converged on the two players and were able to pull them apart while they were still high above the ground and Madam Hooch blew her whistle and zoomed into their midst. She began to yell at the players and she waved her arms to motion that Finnigan would now be able to take a penalty.

"Yes," said Rice. "And Madam Hooch has verified the blatching foul. Geoff Finnigan will now take the penalty. No one other than Newcomb may interfere."

The Gryffindor Chaser, Finnigan, flew to the very center of the pitch, and on Madam Hooch's whistle, he began to fly at the Slytherin goal. As he neared the scoring area, he began to zig-zag, the Keeper trying to figure out which side he was going to come from.

"Finnigan gets past Newcomb! The score is twenty to ten to Gryffindor!"

When the cheering stopped, Ava leaned toward Alice. "I feel bad for Charles," she said.

"Who's Charles?" asked Alice.

"Charles Newcomb," said Ava. "The Slytherin Keeper. He's Blaine's brother. Blaine told me that the Slytherin team wanted to replace him with someone else but that no one showed up to the try-outs who could Keep better than him."

"Oh," said Alice, looking out at the Keeper who continued to fly slowly from side to side before his goal hoops.

* * *

Over an hour later, Lorsaw, the Slytherin Captain, called a time out and all the players landed on the grass and each team walked off to their side of the pitch to rest. Up in the stands, many of the students stood up to stretch, even though nearly all of them had stood up once or twice during the more exciting moments in the game. The current score was ninety to ten, Gryffindor in the lead. The Seekers hadn't spotted the Golden Snitch since their first dive. Madam Pomfrey could be seen rushing out onto the pitch to see to Ramsden's shoulder. A few other players had been hit by Bludgers, but Ramsden's injury remained the worst.

"How are you liking your first Hogwarts Quidditch game?" asked Sean of the first years.

"A bit too much," croaked Josef.

Tania began to laugh. "Well, if you didn't cheer every time that anything happens, you'd have more a voice left in your throat."

"I'm just wondering where the Snitch is," said Daphne, staring out at the field. "What if it's flown off somewhere? The game would never end."

"Not so," said Sean. "Golden Snitches are charmed to stay within the boundary of the Quidditch pitch."

"Yeah," said Michael. "And even if the Seekers never did find the Snitch, the Captains can always agree to end a match."

"Well that won't be happening any time soon," said Elizabeth. "Though I must admit," she pushed her arms high above her head, stretching, "I don't think we had a game this long last year."

Shortly thereafter, Rice's voice could be heard again. "The time out is now over."

All eyes turned back to the field and the students in the stands regained their seats. Just like at the beginning of the game, Madam Hooch threw the Quaffle up from the center of the pitch and the players made their way to their positions.

"Baez takes the Quaffle, already making for the Gryffindor goal – Taylor now at the hoops, he turns around – Riley and Stephens try to head Baez off – Baez flying straight into the air, looks like he's trying to fly over the Gryffindors to score, he's still flying up – wait, he dropped the Quaffle! Ramsden below. That was a Porskoff Ploy! Ramsden in possession of the Quaffle, looks like he got his speed back – passes to MacDougal – and Taylor hit from behind by a Bludger, Ryder got him with a Bludger, Taylor is falling! MacDougal scores."

It seemed like everyone was on their feet. The Slytherins were cheering, but nearly everyone else was screaming. Taylor still held his broom with one hand, but he was completely off it and falling to the ground, the magic which made the broom fly just barely slowing his descent. Even as Riley took the Quaffle to keep the Slytherins from taking any more advantage of the unguarded hoops, Aly Spinner and Madan Hooch were at Taylor's side, catching him only feet from the ground.

"The Seekers!" said Rice.

"Oh no!" said Katleigh. As they all looked to find the Seekers, Alice understood what had so upset the young Gryffindor. Lorsaw was flying straight into the air from the center of the pitch, but Kumar was no where near him. She had been by the Gryffindor goal posts, perhaps hoping to help Taylor. If Lorsaw caught the Snitch now, Gryffindor would lose.

"Come on Kumar!" said Rice, her favoritism of the Gryffindor team more evident than ever before. Kumar went shooting toward Lorsaw at a speed that nearly turned her into a red blur. Alice's neck ached from the strain of looking straight up into the air. The Slytherin Captain stopped his ascent and leveled off, flying now in the direction of the Slytehrin goal, taking him even further away from Kumar and nearly at the same speed that she was going. He reached out his hand before him. Alice fantasized that she saw a glint of gold in front of him, but she knew she was too far away to spot the Golden Snitch. Kumar was flying after Lorsaw as fast as she could go, but she was at least five broom lengths behind him and he'd grab the Snitch in the next few seconds.

"Look at Kate!" said Sean.

Alice looked and saw that the Gryffindor Beater was flying level with Lorsaw, though on the side of the field while he was flying down the middle. And coming straight at her was a Bludger. Beaters usually hit Bludgers one-handed so that they could steer their brooms, but Spinner, abandoning the need to either balance or steer, let go of her broom and swung at the Bludger with all her might, two-handed. It met with a resounding crack, the force behind her swing so great that her bat went flying from her grasp. Her broom, with no hand upon it, turned upward, causing the witch to nearly slide off the tail end, but she grabbed the broom and barely reclaimed her seat upon it.

The Bludger she had hit had been one Lorsaw had been expecting. He sped up as he heard the crack, but the Bludger still smashed into the tail of his broom, sending him into a spin. Kumar caught up with him in a few seconds and passed him up, looking frantically for the Snitch, but it was no where in sight.

After a few moments, Rice cleared her throat. She had been silent throughout the entire episode. "Ok," she said. "And K. Spinner has lost her bat – the Seekers have lost sight of the Snitch – Taylor is out of the game – and Stephens in possession of the Quaffle."

"What was she thinking?" asked Sean.

"What was who thinking?" said Anne.

"Kumar. She shouldn't have been so near the ground and the edge of the pitch at the same time."

Alanna turned to look at her brother. "You might understand a lot about Quidditch, Sean, but you don't know much about girls. Priyanka and Nathan are dating."

"Stephens passes forward to Riley," said Rice. "Riley entering the scoring area, she flies around Newcomb – Gryffindor scores! One hundred to twenty to Gryffindor!" A loud crash was heard and a Bludger smashed into Riley's side. Rice gasped. "Bludger to Riley," she said. "Ryder and Arnold hit that Bludger together! Gryffindor Captain down!"

Amber Riley, Captain of the Gryffindor team, managed to fly herself down to the ground, but as she rolled off her broom, it seemed evident that she wouldn't be getting back up.

"That takes three members of the Gryffindor team out of the game unless Spinner can find her bat," said Rice. Kate Spinner was, in fact, flying along the ground, looking for her bat. Things weren't looking good for the Gryffindor team. "Already?" cried Rice in disbelief. "Lorsaw and Kumar, they've spotted something above – Kumar is pulling ahead of Lorsaw – she's reaching up – Bludger! She took a Bludger to the arm, it looks broken." The two Seekers turned as one, both of them intent on the object they were chasing. Their path took them right by the stands where Alice and her friends were sitting. Alice could see the strain in each of their faces, but it was more pronounced in Kumar's face. She was obviously in great pain. "Kumar slowing, Lorsaw is now pulling away – he just grabbed something, does he have it?" Caige Lorsaw pulled his broom in and raised his hand into the air. The Slytherins let up a cheer. "Yes," said Rice, sounding disappointed. "Lorsaw has caught the Golden Snitch. Slytherin wins, one hundred and seventy to one hundred."


	12. Holding First

Characters introduced in this chapter: Internet friends: I LOVE TOM - Faith Hopkins, Big John - John Greenman

Holding First

Alice and Ava walked up the stairs to their room, each wearing a huge smile.

"I never thought this would happen! And first year too!" Ava threw out her arms as if she were trying to hug the stairway.

"Yeah, it does seem perfect," laughed Alice.

"That was just such an awesome catch!" called Ava, springing up into the air and snatching at an invisible object above her head. "Rodney was great!" Ava opened the door to their room and the two girls walked inside.

Alice giggled at Ava. Her hop on the stairs was nothing compared to Rodney's catch. The Hufflepuff Seeker! Alice still felt the butterflies in her stomach, struggling to escape.

"Are they still at it?" asked Keri. A new chorus of yells sounded from below, as if in answer to the young girl's question.

Just as Alice turned around to shut the door, she heard a voice above all the others. "GO TO BED! Now! All of you! The party's over; the party's been over for over an hour!"

Bella chucked from behind her curtains. "Prefects!" she snorted.

"What time," yawn, "is it?" asked Daphne.

Ava, who had just thrown herself onto her bed, bounced back up and checked the clock on her vanity. "One thirty-two in the morning," she replied.

Bella pushed her curtain to the side and rolled out of bed. "Just the perfect time to be awake," she announced. She passed Alice, who was walking toward her own bed, and made her way to the door.

"Wait!" said Keri. "You can't go anywhere now! It's well after hours!"

"We can visit the common room at any time," said Bella.

"I don't think you can right now," said Alice, slipping into her pajamas. "They just made us go to bed," she motioned toward herself and Ava.

"Yeah," said Ava, sounding a bit peeved. "All we wanted to do was celebrate Hufflepuff's victory! You should know what all the older students have been saying. Hufflepuff hasn't been in first place for the Quidditch Cup in years, not after their first game or their second game and surely not after their last game!"

Bella stood at the door, her hand on the knob. "I know," she said excitedly. "Prefects or no, we really should party all night! We deserve it!"

"I don't know," said Daphne. "I mean, we won, but Ravenclaw has such a weak team this year. How many players last year did Sean say were seventh years?"

"Four," said Alice.

"Yeah, four," continued Daphne. "That's over half the team that are new players! It wasn't that much of a feat for us to win."

"Daphne," said Ava, "are you trying to dampen our spirits? This is such a great victory! Who cares if it was an easy game! It was a game that we won! We're in first place in the running for the Quidditch Cup!"

"Probably for the House Cup as well," said Bella. "We'll have to wait till tomorrow to see. The hourglasses! Those citrines are going to look so beautiful, I know it!" After a quick good-bye, Bella opened the door and shot down to the common room from where the sounds of merriment could still be heard.

Alice couldn't wipe the smile from her face, and Bella's last words caused her daydream (of Rodney catching the Snitch, with the Ravenclaw Seeker right on his tail) to change. The four hourglasses in the entrance hall, each filled with a gemstone to match the colors of the four houses, floated to the top of her mind. The four houses had remained fairly equal to each other until after the first Quidditch game (when Slytherin and Gryffindor pulled far ahead of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, Slytherin in first), but now the real race had begun. Alice almost couldn't get herself to fall asleep, the idea of seeing yellow citrines pilled high within Hufflepuff's hourglass crowding her mind, but somehow sleep took her.

* * *

Alice awoke what felt like a moment later. Daphne was already gone, but the other girls all appeared to be asleep. As Alice stirred around her trunk and vanity, Ava woke up as well and sat up in her bed with a yawn and a stretch.

"I love Sunday," she said. "It's just such a pleasant day. No school!"

"Yeah, but there always seems to be homework to do," said Alice, slipping socks onto her feet.

Ava shrugged and got out of bed. "I guess that if we did our homework on Saturday that wouldn't be the case. Actually, I think many Hufflepuffs do. The hard working factor."

Alice giggled. "Then what am I doing here?"

Ava planted her hands on her hips and regarded Alice with a stare. "You're very hard working," she proclaimed. "And if you can't see it, the rest of us can." She went back to getting dressed.

"Are you two going to go down to breakfast?" asked Keri, sticking a sleepy head out of her bed curtains.

"Sure," said Ava, sitting down at her vanity to attempt to tame her frizzy hair.

"We probably shouldn't wake Bella though," whispered Keri. "I'm not sure how late she stayed up."

"We could let her sleep," agreed Alice.

Arriving in the Entrance Hall a few minutes later, the three Hufflepuff first years found a crowd of students standing before the House hourglasses. Keri, being the tallest of the three, stood on her tip-toes and got a glimpse. "We're in first!" she said excitedly to the other two.

"I knew it!" said Ava, doing a little dance of glee.

"Oh, come off it!" snapped a familiar voice nearby.

Ava turned her dance into a spin so that she could face her opponent. It was Juliana Ramsden. Oddly, she wasn't hanging out with the Falcon twins this morning, but was instead standing with another Slytherin girl who Alice had heard a teacher address as Hopkins once. "There's no way you're going to win the House Cup," said Ramsden.

"Or the Quidditch Cup either," said Hopkins. "I mean, come on! You're Hufflepuffs! And you may have beaten Ravenclaw, but that means nothing. We beat Gryffindor, the team with the most seventh years!"

The look on Ava's face made Alice uneasy; she wasn't sure what the girl was going to do. "You think you're so great, don't you?" asked Ava.

"Of course," said Hopkins. "Slytherin is so obviously the best house. You know, you could have been one of us. Your father, at least, was a pureblood. Wasn't he?"

"I would have died before I would have become a Slytherin," Ava snapped, the color rising in her face.

"Hey," said Keri worriedly. "Let's not argue! We'll get in trouble. Why don't we just try and get along?"

"Hear that Faith?" asked Juliana, "She sounds scared!"

"I am not!" said Keri, but she didn't sound very convincing.

"Of course she isn't," defended Ava, taking a step in front of Keri. "What's to be scared of? You're just a couple of garden snakes and nothing more."

"Ava!" said Alice with concern.

"What?" asked Ava, looking away from the two Slytherins. Alice made a bobbing motion with her head to instruct Ava to look behind her. The girl turned around to see Snape standing at the top of the stairs leading to the dungeons. He was watching the group of first years intently but hadn't made a move toward them yet. Ava turned back around and began to walk toward the double doors leading into the Great Hall. "I'm hungry," she called back over her shoulder. Alice and Keri hurried to catch up with her.

They found Daphne sitting with John at the table already, each with a plate full of food and a face full of cheer.

"Hey guys!" said Daphne happily, "Did you see that we're in first?"

"Yeah," said Alice, sitting down and grabbing a doughnut.

"We're going to get the House Cup, I can feel it," she continued.

"Hey?" asked Ava suddenly, "What's the order of the other houses?"

"Currently," said John, speaking up for the first time, "it's Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw. But Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are really close."

"How odd," said Keri. "I heard that Ravenclaw won the House Cup last year and Gryffindor the Quidditch Cup. And then Gryffindor was second in House Cup and Ravenclaw second in Quidditch Cup."

"How did Hufflepuff do last year?" asked Daphne.

"Third in Quidditch Cup and last in House Cup," said Keri with a frown.

Ava giggled. "Well, not this year," she said. "We're in first and we're going to stay in first! We'll show those Slytherins!" She began to pile food onto her plate.

"Slytherins?" asked John, obviously puzzled.

"I have to agree with John," said Daphne. "Slytherins? I mean, you'd think the house to beat this year would be Gryffindor. I heard a prefect saying the Gryffindor N.E.W.T. students were neck and neck with Ravenclaw this year and we've all seen the difference in their Quidditch teams."

"She's just mad with the Slytherins right now," said Alice, letting Ava start eating without needing to respond.

"Ok," said Daphne, "alright."

* * *

Later that evening, Alice sat beside the lake, books ranged around her. She was putting the finishing touches on her latest History of Magic essay. Most of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had chosen to take this time to work on their papers as well. The assignment was to compare and contrast two wizard wars of the past and how they were fought. Of course, most people in the class had chosen the recently fought war between the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters as one of their choices, but Alice had opted for a different route. She had compared one of the wizard/goblin wars with the uprising and defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald. It still surprised her how many of her fellow students had never heard of this wizard who reminded her so much of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named that she almost viewed this latter dark wizard to be nothing more than a copy cat.

Setting her quill to the side, she rolled out the parchment to its full length and began to measure it with her wand. "Four feet and about … two inches" she mumbled to herself. The essay had to be three and a half feet long, but Alice always wrote longer.

"Really?" asked Daphne, looking up from her own essay. "I don't have even two feet yet!"

"Alice, you have to help us!" called Michael from his spot under a nearby tree. "I don't know how you take so many notes in Binns' class."

"How can I not?" Alice called back. "He talks straight for the whole period."

"That's why," said Jadea. "But Alyson's just like you too! I don't understand how you do it."

Alice and Alyson made eye contact. True, they were the best in their year at History of Magic, though Alice had also heard from a Gryffindor, to her annoyance, that Juliana Ramsden wasn't too bad at the subject either.

"History of Magic is easy," said Alyson, turning to Jadea and her fellow Ravenclaws.

Bella snorted. "Yeah," she said, "and hags are nice company."

"Alyson," said Eve, scanning her own paragraph, "how long is your essay? I saw you put your quill up a while ago."

"Um," said Alyson, looking down at her rolled up parchment. "It's three feet eleven inches."

_Yes, I beat her!_ thought Alice. She nearly flinched at her own thought though. She hadn't realized she was competing with the brown-haired Ravenclaw before, but she couldn't help it. In her mind, History of Magic was _her_ subject.

"Wow!" said Eve. "There's no way I could write that much by tomorrow!"

Kai regarded her roommate with raised eyebrows. "That's because you procrastinate too much. I finished my essay yesterday morning. Three feet and eight inches. I compared the Grindelwald and Voldemort wars." Many of the students gasped as she spoke Voldemort's name. "What?" she said. "He's _dead!_ Anyway, I couldn't get away with calling him 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' in my family. My parents still call him the Dark Lord." Her tone of voice turned dark as she said this.

"What about your sister?" asked Jadea. "I noticed that my brother has taken to talking of him in that way. I just wonder if he'll dare to say that in front of our parents."

"I don't know," said Kai. "Akiko … well, she's in Slytherin, but I still believe that she's a good person." Kai shrugged and shook her head, her black braid swishing from side to side. "I'm the black sheep in the family."

"It's the opposite in my family," said Joseph. "My brother, Peter, is in Slytherin, you know." Joseph tapped his quill on his parchment. "I'm sorry, but I can't remember. Harry Potter's companions, the children who helped out in the war… There was Ronald Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger … and that's all I remember."

"Luna Lovegood" said Alyson just as Alice said "Neville Longbottom."

"Thanks," said Joseph, quickly jotting the names down.

"You know what," said Steven, looking up from what appeared to be a nearly finished essay, "you two could tutor together. Just like I help some people with Defense Against the Dark Arts. I think there are more people than need help with History of Magic than Defense Against the Dark Arts."

The thought had passed Alice's mind a few times before. She really enjoyed talking about history and tutoring it would give her the perfect excuse to talk about it. Still, she had her own studying to do. She still had to work extra hard in order to get her Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms spells to work, and even in Transfiguration, she was slow. Even though it was her easiest spell-casting class, she worked hardest in it. Maybe she did so _because_ it was her easiest wand class. It had been a long time since she had left Professor McGonagall's class without a headache, though she kept that information to herself.

"What do you think, Alice?" said Alyson, breaking into her thoughts.

All of the eager eyes on her, mostly of her fellow Hufflepuffs since Alyson was a Ravenclaw, made up Alice's mind for her. "Sure, I could do that." A sudden thought occurred to her. "And Binns never seems to add or take away house points based on behavior in class" ("Does he even know we're there?" asked Ava sarcastically.) "but only based on the grades we receive. So, Ravenclaw can move ahead of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff will be able to hold onto first."

"Not unless we catch up to you," said Dominic. The brown-haired boy was lying on his back in the grass. Blaine and Ava were beside him, watching the clouds go by.

"We'll never catch up to anyone if you don't learn how to stop procrastinating," scolded Kai.

"Hey!" said Dominic, affronted. "You do what you're doing and don't worry about what we're doing. My work always gets done on time."

"Yeah," voiced Eve, finishing up half a foot worth of her own essay.

"Procrastination is a sign of intelligence," said Blaine from his spot in the grass. Kai rolled her eyes and Jadea began to giggle at her.

* * *

"Hufflepuff meeting, after dinner," said Elizabeth to the first years as they sat down to eat.

"Huh?" asked Josef.

"There's going to be a meeting in the common room," repeated Elizabeth. "Actually, I'm excited. We didn't do anything like this last year!"

"Hmm, I wonder what it's about," said Keri, filling up her glass with pumpkin juice.

"Won't be too long till we all find out," said Elizabeth. "I'm going to make sure other people know." She got up and moved on down the table.

Chatter filled the Hufflepuff table as everyone learned of the meeting. The prefects left the table early, tired of being asked repeatedly what it was about. Alice, along with the people sitting around her, ate her food quickly so that she could get to the common room and figure out what was going on. She stood up when Ava did and the two girls exited the Great Hall together. John, Josef, and Michael were quick to follow them, the three boys carrying more food with them since they hadn't been able to eat as much as they wanted in the short period of time.

"Wait up!" called Josef, precariously balancing an overloaded napkin. Ava and Alice stopped to let the boys catch up with them.

Alice laughed when she saw the two turkey legs and half a loaf of bread in John's hands, much more than either Josef or Michael were carrying. "Are you sure you need that much extra food?" she asked. She felt a bit bad asking such a question. John was big, the biggest Hufflepuff younger than a third year, the biggest first year out of all of the houses. And it was more than obvious that he loved food.

John grinned. "Of course I need this," he said, taking a bite out of one of the turkey legs.

The Hufflepuffs descended the stairs into the hallway filled with food portraits and quickly made their way to the common room. In no time, they were standing before Mr. Cripps. The Nightwatch squinted down at them all, holding his lantern out before him. The light in it was very faint today, as if the wick needed to be replaced.

"I can barely see you," he complained. "How do I even know you're Hufflepuffs?"

Spot, at his side, began to wag his tail vigorously and then barked.

"If Spot knows you, then so do I," said Mr. Cripps.

"Toppinhopper," said Ava to the portrait.

"Yep, that's it," agreed Mr. Cripps as his portrait swung outwards. It looked like over half of the House was already packed into the common room, though Alice had been certain that not that many had left the Great Hall yet.

"Let's head for the corner," she suggested, pointing toward the far end of the room. The five Hufflepuff first years pushed their way through the crowded room and took all but the last beanbag in the corner to sit on.

"Want some?" asked Michael, holding out his napkin filled with cookies to the two girls. Alice politely declined by Ava snatched up a cookie right away. As the rest of them snacked, Alice surveyed the room. A table and chair and been dragged across the room to just before the fireplace and one of the prefects was currently sitting at the table, engrossed in a paper before her.

The common room continued to fill up steadily. The prefect sitting at the table in front of the fire finally stood up and began to count the people in the room. It looked like she attempted to count three times, but in the mass of moving, excited students, Alice wondered if she could have possibly gotten the same number any of those times. After the third counting though, she seemed satisfied, picked up her papers, and quickly stepped up onto her chair and then onto the table.

"May I have your attention please?" she yelled. The room began to quiet down, but a few seventh years made snide remarks about how it wasn't fair only prefects could stand on the furniture. The girl ignored them and held out her paper before her to read aloud.

"Hufflepuff is in first place in the Quidditch and House Cups," she announced to resounding cheers. "First place," she repeated, even louder. "In my seven years at Hogwarts, this has _never_ happened before! There was a short period of time in my second and then my fourth years when we were first place in the House Cup, but never the Quidditch Cup, and surely never at the same time as the House Cup! This is a momentous occasion! This is Hufflepuff's chance to show the other three houses what we're made of! Loyalty I see in this room! Every face, I know, would be proud to sport yellow and black! We are the badgers; we are the best!"

She paused as the noise level in the room rose to a crescendo.

"Wait to go Kelley!"

"You tell them, Jessica! We are _so_ the best house!"

Jason Trent, the Quidditch Captain, jumped up onto the table next to Jessica Kelley and put his arms up into the air. "We're going to win!" his voice boomed across the room. "I can feel it!"

"Hardwork!" Kelley shouted. "I know you all have it in you! It's part of what makes us all Huffles! Work hard and I'm certain we'll be able to hold first place! This is our year!"

Alice almost couldn't hear herself think. The cheering and shouting lasted much longer than this short speech, and it was sweet dreams that met them all as they fell to sleep that night.


	13. Glowing Paper

Characters introduced in this chapter: Internet friends: Lady Lee - Lee Hughes, Unloved-for-Sale - Perin Peachbough

Glowing Paper

"Come _on_ Ava! We don't want to be left behind!"

"Oh, they couldn't leave us, could they?" asked Ava in a huff, stuffing things willy-nilly into her trunk.

"Filch said they would." Alice shifted from one foot to the other. "Oooo! Let me help you!" She stormed across the room and began straightening out the items in Ava's trunk so that Ava could fit everything else in.

"Watch your hands Alice!" Ava shut her trunk with a snap. "Now, to put our schooling to use!" Ava raised her wand, pointed it at her trunk, and said, "_Wingardium leviosa!_" Her trunk shuddered for a second and then rose into the air.

"Good one!" said Alice, moving off to her own trunk.

"Ummm…"

Alice turned around to see what the problem was.

"This … isn't going to work," said Ava, squinting at her trunk. "This spell wasn't made to transport things. It just makes stuff go straight up."

"Well, then we'll just have to drag them. And hurry!" Alice leaned down and took a hold of her own trunk. The next moment, they were each crashing their way down the stairs.

"What's all that racket?" asked James as they arrived in the common room. "Wait, are you two going home for the holidays?"

"Yes!" said Ava frantically. "But we'll never get these trunks up the stairs!"

The prefect jumped up, whipping out his wand. "_Locomotor trunks!"_ The two trunks rose into the air and preceded him out the door. He glanced over his shoulder. "Aren't you coming? You're stretching the time already as it is!"

The two first years ran after the prefect and kept running. Even with their trunks to maneuver, the sixth year was making great headway. As they sprinted out of the front doors, Alice stumbled and nearly fell, but Ava reached out a hand to steady her.

"Aah! My side!" called out Alice, clutching her stomach. "I've got a stitch in my side."

"Can't worry about that now!" yelled James, almost to the lake.

Alice closed her eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and renewed her sprint, trying hard to not think of the searing pain in her side which seemed to increase with each new stride. Ava was quickly pulling away from her.

"Smoke!" yelled Ava, pointing up at the sky. "The train's going to leave without us!"

"No!" said Alice.

James rounded the corner and was out of sight as the two girls exploded out of the front gates. They could hear the train's whistle screaming.

"Not gonna make it," Alice said raggedly.

"Have to," was all Ava responded.

And then they could see the train.

"_Honestly!_" barked a familiar voice, tugging on the girls' robes to jerk them to a painful halt. They each looked up into Professor McGonagall's stern face, their mouths agape as they tried to pull air into their lungs. "Tardiness is not permissible; I'm sure you know that girls."

"I'm sorry, McGonagall," said James. "I thought everyone had left. I _know_ that I got all the boys out."

"That's alright Wright. You may go back to the school. Now, Bint! Borboa!" McGonagall shoved a paper at each girl. "On the train with you!"

They each boarded and turned to see the old professor closing the door. "And Happy Christmas!" McGonagall smiled and the door snapped shut. Immediately, the train began to move and Ava fell into Alice at the sudden movement, knocking her over so that they were sprawled on the floor.

They lay there until they got their breathing under control and then Ava sat up and smoothed out her paper. "Aww!" she said. "We can't use magic over the break!"

"I don't care what we can and can't do over the break," said Alice, sitting up and massaging her side, "just so long as we get to go home. I can't believe we almost didn't make it!"

"Sorry," said Ava, and she really sounded sorry.

Alice sighed. "That's ok. Let's find a compartment."

The two girls began to troop down the hallway, glancing into each compartment in search of a place to sit. With nearly every Hogwarts student going home for the holidays, the train was packed.

"I found Blaine!" said Ava happily, coming to a stop outside one of the compartments. By the time Alice caught up to her though, her smile was gone. "Only one empty seat," said Ava, looking with concern at Alice.

Alice felt like something was stuck in her throat. "It's ok. I'll find somewhere else to sit."

"We _both_ will," said Ava with feeling, walking on down the hallway. Alice couldn't help but smile as she followed the short girl.

Not long after, they found their roommates, but there wasn't room for them there either. Just when they had nearly resolved themselves to passing the trip in the hall, they reached the second to last compartment on the train and saw that there was room for them. Ava opened the door.

"Can we sit in here?"

The three girls inside looked up and one of them smiled hugely. "Look! It's Bint!"

Alice met the girl's eyes and blushed. "Hello Wambly," she said. She slid into the spot right next to the Gryffindor second year. "It's been a while since I saw you in the library."

Susie nodded. "Are you still reading that book from the Restricted Section?"

"Yeah," said Alice, thinking of _Studying Theory_. Just the thought of the book made her stomach churn, but she didn't know why. She had been getting much better at spell casting, but the huge book that had helped her to such an end was beginning to make her uneasy. Shrugging the feeling off, she went into introductory mode.

"Susie, this is my friend, Ava. Ava, this is Susie Wambly."

The two girls shook hands.

"Nice to meet you," said Susie, her eyes appearing extra big behind her glasses. "And these are my friends. This is Perin, from my own glorious house of Gryffindor!" Perin nodded her head in acknowledgement. "And Lee," Susie eyed Ava's yellow collar, "from your own house, it looks like."

Lee's black eyes met those of the two first years. "Me and Susie are childhood friends," she said. "Our mothers went to school together." She made a face at her friend, "And they were both Hufflepuffs. Too bad Susie had to go off and be weird."

"You know I take that as a compliment," said Susie.

"Yeah, I know," said Lee.

Alice and Perin giggled, looked at one another startled, and then laughed even more. Before long, all five girls were engaged in an animated conversation about how mean Snape was and how cute they all found Flitwick to be and how much they looked forward to Defense Against the Dark Arts every week.

* * *

Alice gave her father a big hug once she saw him on the platform, coming off the train. She almost forgot to shout good bye to her friends and wish everyone a Happy Christmas, she was that happy to see her father again. 

Mr. Bint kissed the top of Alice's head, chuckling at her. "It's good to see you too, girl! Did you have a good time at Hogwarts?" He grabbed the end of her trunk and lifted it up onto a trolley.

"Uh-huh!" said Alice, grinning widely.

"Excited about Christmas?"

"Yep!"

Mr. Bint began laughing again. "Well I'm glad you're doing so well. I'm sorry your mother isn't here. Richard had a little accident and she had to rush him to St. Mungo's."

They emerged into the muggle train station without attracting any attention.

"Oh no," said Alice. "What happened? Is Richy alright?"

"Of course he's alright," said Mr. Bint. "You know your brother. He just tried lighting the back of his broomstick to make smoke trails and the fire caught up with him."

Alice cringed.

* * *

It was the oddest feeling, walking into her room that evening. She'd only been away for a few months, but it felt like a lifetime. Probably oddest of all though, she realized with a pang in her gut that she wasn't coming home. Sure, this was the house she had grown up in and the room that she had gone to bed in for the first eleven years of her life, but it was no longer her home. Hogwarts was her home now. 

"Alice!" she was attacked from behind, two arms engulfing her.

"Ahh! Richy!" Alice struggled out of her little brother's grasp and spun around to face him. She gasped immediately and fell backward onto her bed.

Richard's face creased with concern. "What? I'll be alright. It was just a little burn, and anyways, it's on my backside. Why're you looking at me like that?"

"You're…" Alice mouthed silently, gulped, and tried again. "When'd you get so tall?"

Richard's eyes lit up and he ran up to Alice's full length mirror. "Have I really gotten that much taller?" he asked with enthusiasm.

"Yes, dear," replied the mirror.

"Richy," said Alice, coming up beside him, "you're taller than me."

Richard looked at the two of them, side-by-side in the mirror, and his face brightened even more. "So I am," he said. He grinned at his older sister. "You're short."

Alice scoffed. "I am not," she mumbled, glancing at herself sidelong in her mirror.

"You haven't grown at all since you left, dear," said her mirror.

Alice stuck out her tongue at it.

Richard took a hold of Alice's hand and dragged her away from her reflection. "Come _on_, sis! You've _got_ to show me something you learned at school! You rarely ever wrote home and I've been waiting to see you do magic for _ages!_"

Alice stuck her hand into her pocket and fished out her wand, but even as she raised it in front of her, a piece of paper fluttered to the floor. Alice looked down at it, realizing that it must have been in her pocket with her wand, but she didn't remember putting it there. Richard picked the paper up and smoothed it out to read. As he read, his face fell.

"Aww! You're not allowed to do magic outside of school?" he whined.

His words triggered a memory of Ava saying the same thing. Alice had never taken the time to read her own note though. She snatched it out of her brother's hand.

_Dear Parents,_

_In order to insure the safety and well-being of all of our students during the holidays, we have the strict policy of forbidding underage witches and wizards from performing magic outside of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Keep an eye on your child to make sure that they do not perform magic, as two such offences will result in expulsion._

_This is in accordance with policies set down by the Improper Use of Magic Office in the Ministry of Magic. Thank you for your consideration!_

_Signed, Deputy Headmistress,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

Alice sighed, set the paper down on her pillow, and stuffed her wand back into her pocket. "Sorry Richy," she said.

"Naw, don't be sorry," he said, "Christmas is coming!"

* * *

Richard's optimism refused to fizzle out over the following week leading up to Christmas day, and his mood was contagious throughout the household. Their house elf, Razzy, took up singing Christmas carols practically non-stop. While for many house elves, such behavior proved annoying beyond words, Razzy's sweet voice did the songs justice and no one even considered telling her to be quiet. Alice even spotted Razzy dancing with Richard once in his room. The dancing, unlike Razzy's singing, was a complete and utter failure, and after a few moments of peeking through Richard's half-open door, Alice couldn't figure out who was trying to teach the dance to whom and she left them to their vain efforts. 

Christmas Eve dawned clear and cold. A new layer of snow had fallen during the night and Razzy's efforts indoors were also evident. A fine mist of golden dust covered all of their already-in-place Christmas decorations. Once, when they were younger, Alice and Richard had stayed up late to watch Razzy go to work. It was a trick taught to her by her mother, passed down through the generations. Razzy would walk silently into each room, turn in a full circle, and then snap her fingers. Magic dust would then spring out of nowhere and fall onto everything. Once in place, the dust was immobile and it would stay in place for two whole days, disappearing Christmas night.

Alice found Richard pulling on warm clothing next to the back door. "Snow!" he said excitedly!

Alice laughed. "You say that like it wasn't there yesterday."

"You're coming too, right?" asked Richard.

At once, Alice felt the difference between herself and Richard, the difference in their ages. "I can't," she replied. "I have packages to send out to my friends."

By the look on Richard's face, Alice could tell that he felt the difference too. In years past, their parents sent out presents to their cousins and even their few friends, but now Alice was a Hogwarts student and her parents didn't have tabs on all of her friend. Only she knew what to send and to whom. Finally, Richard shrugged. "Your loss," he said, sprinting out the door, letting the cold in for a moment to rush past Alice. She grinned and hurried to the task of writing addresses on all of the packages she had, setting them where Barky, the family owl, would see them when he returned from his current route.

* * *

"Happy Christmas!" A heavy object landed on Alice, painfully waking her up. "Happy Christmas!" Richard repeated. 

Alice pushed her younger brother off of her, sat up, and massaged her aching ribs. "Richy! Why'd you jump on me? That hurt!"

"Some of your presents are glowing," said Richard, ignoring his sister's words.

With the thought of presents, all annoyance toward her brother disappeared. Alice sprang out of bed and was about to run downstairs when she saw the glowing presents her brother had mentioned. A bundle of packages lay at the end of her bed.

"I have presents in my room!" announced Alice with delight, dropping to the floor in front of her gifts. "Why aren't they under the tree?" she asked, picking up the nearest one.

Richard grabbed another package and looked at its glowing wrapping paper with interest. "Mom said this would happen. She said the owls from your friends would drop off your gifts at the end of your bed and that I shouldn't get jealous." He looked up. "Didn't you know that?" When Alice didn't respond, Richard asked, "Who's Steven?"

Alice snatched the package out of Richard's hand. He grinned. "Oooo! You _like_ him, don't you?"

"I do not!" Alice snapped. She pointed at the door. "Get out of my room!" Jumping up, she tugged on the neck of Richards pajamas, forcing him to leave and slammed the door on him. Returning to her stack of presents, she began to sort through them. With surprise, she realized that she had received more presents than she had sent out and guilt temporarily filled her.

She let the feeling leave as she began to tear the paper off of the boxes and parcels though, letting the glowing wrapping paper fall where it may till her floor was glowing and twinkling and blinking up at her.

Bella and Daphne had each sent her a history book, one on the history of Asian Wizards and the other claiming to chronicle everything known about giants. Keri and Steven had also sent her books. Keri's gift turned out to be filled with maps of some of the biggest wizarding towns on the globe, but Alice soon found the book extremely annoying since every page vocally advertised the best shops in a high-pitched voice which grew scratchy the longer she stayed on the same page. Steven had sent her a book on Defense Against the Dark Arts. At first, Alice thought it was an average spell book, but as she focused in on a spell that was supposed to ward off pixies, she was delighted to see pictures form on the page of a witch performing the spell. Alice truly hoped the book would prove useful.

Joseph had sent her a chocolate frog and a deck of self-shuffling playing cards; Alyson had sent her a box of muggle chocolates and a journal with a cat on the front. Michael, Josef, Elizabeth, and Eve had also sent candy, some wizard and some muggle.

By far, the greatest gift of all though, came jointly from Ava and Blaine. Alice could barely believe her eyes. Excitedly, she scooped up as many shreds of wrapping paper as she could reach, piling them around the gift so that their glow would illuminate the bottle and convince her that it was real.

"Personality and Speaking Ink," Alice read aloud from the label, "Use with caution. Directions: Apply ink to drawings and paintings to make them talk and act with an original personality. Ink dries clear. The amount of ink applied to the mouth of drawn characters controls how talkative they will be. In order to instill personality, apply ink to the face (especially the eyes) of the characters and perform an appropriate spell which can be found in some spell books. Disclaimer: This product does not make drawings move! Warning: Do not touch ink with your bare skin or get any in your eyes. Do not consume. In case of emergency, contact your family healer immediately."

Alice's eyes darted to the book next to her bottle. _Give Your Portraits Personality_ by Ellis Nouget. "I must be the luckiest girl in the world," Alice whispered.

"Of course you are, dear," said her mirror.

* * *

Alice walked onto the platform, her trunk heavier than ever with her Christmas presents in addition to all of her school things. While packing her trunk earlier that morning, she had seriously wondered why she packed half the things to take home that she did. 

Just as her father was helping her to load her trunk onto the train, a body rammed into her back, nearly tipping her over. "Thank you for the spying mirror!" said Ava. "Now I can see through walls! It's the coolest thing ever!"

Alice began laughing. "I thought you'd find it interesting and that you wouldn't have anything like it."

"Nope," said Ava, shaking her head so that her hair swished about. "Never even heard of them, actually. Are they new?"

Alice and Ava boarded the train, waving to their families. "Yeah. Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes just started selling them this year," said Alice. "Though the man who sold it to me said it might not work too well at Hogwarts. Too much magic in the place. Interference, he said."

"Oh, I don't mind," said Ava. A grin lit up her face. "For the first time ever, I got to look into my father's study when he was working in there! Too bad he was mostly reading or making potions the whole time. It would have been so hilarious if he took that time to do funny stuff like stand on his head."

Alice giggled. "Where do you come up with this stuff? You're something else Ava."

"Yeah, I know," said Ava, sliding into an empty compartment. She took out her wand and began to twirl it in one hand. "But one of these days, I'll be something else _and_ a witch! Gosh, it's so good to be going back to school!"


End file.
